Tracom has potential to go on: vice premier Igor Dodon

The tractor-producer Tracom has potential to go on working, believes the first deputy premier Igor Dodon. The official payed a visit to the factory on Monday. Tracom's employees have been protesting for several days because of delayed salaries during half a year, Info-Prim Neo reports. The wage arrears are deemed to amount to 4 million lei. The protests are staged by some 400 workers. The manager, Aleksandr Suleimanov, explains the arrears by inability to sell the tractors. The factory has some 30 tractors in store, assessed at some 6 million lei. Igor Dodon has ruled out the possibility of the factory ceasing to work. He promises the Economy and Trade Ministry will help the company to sign a contract to sell the tractors to Moldovan companies, till weekend. It will allow to start paying the salaries. “It's essential that every employee understands that nobody wants to have the factory sold off, destroyed. It has sufficient resources and good specialists to develop further,” said Igor Dodon. According to the Minister of Economy, the second issue is about speeding up the talks with the Belarus side to start the joint production. Earlier, the Government had the idea to launch a joint production with Belarus. The Belorussians proposed a series of modifications to the Moldovan tractor. The serial production was to start in March 2008. According to preliminary understandings, the Belarus side assumed to sell the tractors on foreign markets. Yet the talks failed.