Almost one million Moldovans live or work abroad, according to a report by the Bureau for Migration and Asylum. Unofficially, the number of those who leave the country in search of a better life is higher. The IPN News Agency asked the election runners what should be done for the people to remain at home and for those who are in Italy, Russia and other states to return to Moldova and to put here to good use the experience gained abroad.
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Grants for Moldovans who want to invest at home
The Democratic Party of Moldova wants to support the reunification of families in Moldova by ensuring well-paid jobs and better living conditions in every settlement. The PDM suggests that any Moldovan who returns home from abroad and wants to invest at least €10,000 in a business should receive a grant of at least €10,000 for additional investments. Those who want to return home to invest money, but don’t know where to start from will be able to attend free business consultancy courses.
Each IT expert who would return home must be exempted from paying the salary tax for a year. The persons who graduate from education institutions abroad should be offered appropriate jobs in the country. A certain number of posts in the central and local public administration can be allocated for Moldovans who studied abroad. The PARE 1+1 program, by which remittances are attracted to the economy, must be continued and the funds available for this program should be doubled. Since 2010 until now, this program has covered about 1,200 Moldovans from abroad or their relatives from the country. The objective set for the next four years is to increase the number of beneficiaries to 3,000.
In order to obtain economic growth in the future, more money should be invested in Moldova’s roads. The priority for the next few years is to rehabilitate the local roads so as to ensure better connection between the villages and the district centers as well as with the capital city. 1 billion lei should be invested annually in the modernization of the local roads. State funds will be allocated for opening and modernizing crèches and nurseries in every settlement and for renovating the maternity hospitals in every district center. The state should provide concessions to the migrants who return home. These would be covered with money from the state budget based on the annual economic growth.
Protection of home market from invasion of foreign goods and capitals
The Christian Democratic People’s Party said Moldova will have no chance to grow its economy, to create a vast network of SMEs, to become highly industrialized and to use the available labor force if the ruling class does not overcome the neo-liberalist myths imposed by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization and the European Union. Moldova exports only people. The collusion between the blind and incompetent ruling class and the international bureaucracy serving the great capital is the major cause for the economic disaster in Moldova. The protection of the home market from foreign goods and capitals is the first measure that must be taken.
The solving of the infrastructure-related problems, especially in rural areas, will not convince the Moldovan migrants to return home and to invest in Moldova. With the policies pursued at present, there will be soon no people who would use the roads built now in European style.
The confiscated property of corrupt functionaries will be the first and most consistent source of strengthening public financing. The second source is the currency exchange activity that will be transferred under state management. The third source will be the activity of a state bank that will shortly become the most powerful financial institution in the country. It will manage all the public money and will provide services to all the state-run companies. It will also offer preferential loans to the national entrepreneurs.
Programs for training people
The Liberal Reformist Party believes that the investment of local and foreign financial resources, especially in rural areas, is the best solution for making the Moldovans from abroad return home. Only if the people have work, will they want to remain at home. The infrastructure is very important for any investor, either national or foreign. Access ways should be ensured, especially in rural areas, as agriculture is the business of the future in Moldova. The good infrastructure is crucial for the Moldovan villages and the party will concentrate its efforts on building it.
The migrants who return home with the intention of investing money will be supported to access European funds. The Moldovan migrants will want to return only when they are provided with jobs. Programs must be initiated to train the people how to draw up projects for accessing European funds.
Creation of an Investment/Development Bank for migrants
According to the National Liberal Party, the Moldovans do not have confidence in the financial and banking institutions of Moldova and thus resort to informal banking methods. The enormous financial resources coming from migration are mainly kept at home, an estimated €6 billion. Therefore, the banks do not have access to these financial inflows and thus have limited possibilities of contributing to social development by providing loans. But the Moldovans want to return home and to live here on a permanent basis. No matter how long they stayed abroad, many Moldova migrants feel strangers in the host country. But they can return only if they are provided with a well-paid job and enjoy a better economic, political and social environment at home.
The party considers that optimal and credible conditions should be created to bring the Moldovans from abroad home. For the purpose, there should be created an Investment/Development Bank with joint capital – of the state and the interested Moldovan migrants (50:50) – for co-financing businesses together with the European funds. There should be also set up a Mutual Investment Fund, a Loan Guarantee Fund and a leasing company. More business incubators and agroindustrial and technological parks are needed. The business community should be freed from monopoly, exaggerated taxes and bureaucracy. A VAT of 10% should be imposed on the national products and a common tax of 10% should be introduced. The implementation of this project will favor the appearance of the middle class, especially in rural areas.
Another priority is the creation of the Center for Competitiveness and Promotion of Investment and Development Projects, which would ensure free primary training in business development and would provide assistance in studying the market and identifying advanced technology, in devising projects for attracting European funds etc. For the purpose, the state will provide financial resources to mayor’s offices for working out urban and territorial development plans.
Program to industrialize the country
The Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova said that the exodus of Moldovan migrants abroad can be stopped by creating the necessary number of workplaces and by ensuring economic development. This objective can be achieved only if Moldova joins the Russia-Belarus –Kazakhstan Customs Union.
Not only the solving of infrastructure-related problems in the rural areas, but also the development of agrarian economy are ways that should be followed to bring the Moldovans home. The party worked out a program to industrialize the country, in particular in the area of processing industry, including agricultural raw material, and to develop competitive agriculture. This program includes a series of economic, financial and organizational measures that will contribute to increasing the employment rate in rural areas, including as a result of the return of the migrants home.
The problem of workplaces for the migrants who return home will be solved when the economic situation is remedied, first of all in the rural areas.
€20,000 for those who start a rural business
The People’s Party of the Republic of Moldova said the lack of workplaces and the low salary against the rising prices caused a mass exodus of the working population and the young people. To persuade them to return home, the economy must be modernized and European living and working conditions must be created at home. The infrastructure-related problems must be solved and the confidence in the state institutions must be restored.
The party will encourage the development of small businesses in villages and will provide a bonus of €20,000 to those who will start a rural business and will create workplaces. A solution is to create small companies for processing fruit, vegetables, grapes, grain, meat and milk in every village by covering 70% of the investment costs and by providing advances for facilitating the development of these businesses, according to the European model.
The current government didn’t manage to implement a program to attract remittances to the economy. The party formulated a number of proposals, including instituting guarantees of up to €20,000 for bank deposits, which is the minimum sum for starting a business.
Tax concessions for persons who start businesses
The Liberal Party will plead for signing and ratifying the UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrants Workers and Members of their Families. Mechanisms should be worked out to convince the people who settled abroad to start businesses in Moldova. A program to encourage small businesses will be implemented, by offering tax concession during the first years of entrepreneurial activity to persons who started own businesses.
Sustainable infrastructure should be created to ensure the increased efficiency of investments, regardless of their origin. It is very important to restore and develop the basic infrastructure in villages (roads, water, sewerage, gas), to modernize and develop the energy networks, to promote the use of renewable sources of energy typical of rural areas. These conditions, together with the financial-fiscal ones, will allow creating a favorable framework for the return of the Moldovans from abroad and will ensure a favorable investment climate for the sustainable development of villages.
The state must provide favored services to the Moldovan entrepreneurs who worked or work abroad, including preferential loans, start-up consultancy and legal aid, financial assistance, trade union representation and labor policies. Most of these actions do not need additional financial effort and can be carried out by doing correct institutional and legal reforms.
Benefitting from financial support directly in the country hosting Moldovan migrants
The Green Ecologist Party said migration abroad is a normal phenomenon in a civilized country. But when the people go abroad because they do not have a source of livelihood at home, this is forced migration. For the migrants to return to Moldova, a Green Economy program must be implemented. Moldova receives European funds and a solution is to make sure that the migrants benefit from financial support directly in the country hosting them for drawing up a program that would be later coordinated with the Moldovan authorities so that these persons get money when they return home.
Concentration on towns and larger villages
According to independent candidate Oleg Brega, for the Moldovans to stop going abroad, the business environment must become predictable and stable, while the taxes must be acceptable or even attractive. Corruption must be rooted out, while bureaucracy minimized to the maximum.
It’s not real to asphalt all the settlements in Moldova and to connect them to the sewerage network. The state should better concentrates on towns and larger villages and to make them more attractive for national and foreign investors as it is urbanization that can ensure a bright future. The people will return if they enjoy fiscal tranquility and do not face all kinds of inspections carried out by order or are not visited by ‘guests’ who would ask for dues to ensure penal ‘protection’.
Exemption from paying income tax for three years
According to the Centrist Union of Moldova, the Communists and the Pro-European Coalition during the last 13 years have transformed the Moldovan people into the most profitable export ‘merchandise’ and into the main investors of the national economy. The migrants annually transfer home about US$2 billion, but the authorities did almost nothing to protect the Moldovans both abroad and in Moldova.
The businesses started by Moldovans working abroad should be exempted from paying the income tax for a period of three years, on condition that at least 50% of the calculated incomes are reinvested in the development of the own business or in social infrastructure projects based on public-private partnerships.
Given that by transferring money home the Moldovans invest in the national economy and essentially contribute to the formation of the state budget by paying VAT and other taxes, the state should contribute to the social instance of the Moldovans by allocating 1.5% of the amounts transferred by these Moldovans into a special nominal account opened at the National House of Social Insurance.
Note: IPN News Agency asked all the election runners to state their views on the given issue. The article contains the answers provided by the agreed date. The IPN series of materials produced before the November 30 parliamentary elections will continue with other important issues identified by the public. So far there were addressed such issues as the undeclared economy, the mandatory health insurance funds and social assistance, and road infrastructure and transport. , and unemployment, and the education system.
Irina Ţurcanu, IPN
