On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the declaration of Moldova’s Independence, IPN News Agency decided to depict the portrait of the current Republic of Moldova. For the purpose, we challenged a number of people, including state officials, politicians, businessmen, civil rights activists and persons without posts and titles, but who have what to say. The generic picture is entitled “Thoughts about and for Moldova”.
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Petru Bodarev, businessman: Moldova had all the chances to become a strong country, but missed them all.

25 years ago, Petru Bodarev was thinking that everything would change within a decade, but the country missed its opportunities at the time. In his view, everyone’s contribution is needed for us to become better than we are now, to “forge ourselves a higher quality of life, a clean and beautiful country, economically, financially and culturally flourishing”.

Speaking about politics, himself a former member of a political party, the businessman described it as a disaster. “Every party that came into power earlier or later in these 25 years had the chance to transform Moldova into a truly European country. However, none of the parties had any long term development plan”, said Bodarev. According to him, many things were started but none actually finished, which left Moldova in state of political, economic, ideological and cultural chaos. “We started to do agriculture, roads, educational reforms, political reforms and all of this was halted less than halfway through”, explained the entrepreneur.

Petru Bodarev says that the conditions were in place to change things for the better, but we didn’t have enough will. “In several months of extraordinary work, we obtained the liberalized visa regime, we signed the Association Agreement with the EU, but then we got arrogant and things went backwards. This proves that if we really want it, with the right attitude and a lot of work, we can achieve good results. But this was only one out of 25 years. Our lack of success stems from the instability fostered by politicians”, argues Bodarev. He thinks Moldova needs a leader for whom there are no other priorities other than the country, as “the current politically class is done for and cannot offer a model of development”.

Concerning his own work, Petru Bodarev says he had one dream and he achieved it. After several high positions in the Soviet industrial system, which was based on the exploitation of the worker and not on technologies meant to ease a laborer’s job, he wanted to build his own business. As soon as he got a chance to engage in the private sector, he did it. He studied “Leather processing and leather products” and “The planning of industry”, then became a footwear manufacturer. He wanted a business that would be up to European standards. Bodarev founded “Cristina”, which “he built with blood, behind the tractor factory, equipped it with the latest technologies and it became on of the best in Europe” and is proud of this accomplishment.

The businessman explained that many branches of the local economy have developed over the last 25 years, but the local market is not protected from the flood of foreign goods, often cheaper but of poorer quality. Unfortunately, because of the poverty, people have to choose cheapness over quality.

In his opinion, the rise of good specialists and companies is not due to official policies. Despite being trained in state institution, the founders of businesses “were forced to become good by hunger”. He thinks industry needs to be better studied and seen as a priority in order to develop it. “We can make furniture, shoes, clothes, bags. Believe me, the technology available today in the EU can allow us to grow, ensure a good pension and salary for the people”, he assured. Bodarev is confident that if the government supported the business environment through measures like tax facilities it would be easier to do business in the country and both sides would benefit from it.

The entrepreneur thinks Moldova has reached a crossroads. He hopes that the rock bottom we hit “will scare the people and will allow us to get back to being the country we once were – having a little of everything, living peacefully with all our neighbors and cooperating with everyone”.
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Petru Bodarev is the founder of Romanian trading company “Cristina Mold-Rom Simpex”. In 2007, he run independently for mayor of Chisinau, but didn’t make it into the second round of elections. In 2009, he joined the Liberal Democratic Party and in 2013 became deputy chairman of the party. In 2016, he left because of “the bad situation and image of the party at the time and irreconcilable differences of ideas and values with the party leadership”.

Anastasia Rusu and Elena Nistor, IPN

The articles of the series “Thoughts about and for Moldova” started to be published on July 18. Among the protagonists are: Dumitru Alaiba, Iurie Ciocan, Ana-Maria Ţulea, Ion Manole,Olga Gagauz, Stella Ciobanu, Iurie Leancă, Victor Parlicov, Doru Curoşu, Igor Meriacre, Valeria Şeican, Ciprian Raeţchi, Andrei Năstase, Ghenadie Gâlcă, Arcadie Barbăroşie,Valeriu Matei, Eugen Doga, Dumitru Postovan, Petru Macovei, Tatiana Negruş, Maia Sandu, Viorel Soltan, Valentin Guţan, Gheorghe Erizanu, Mariana Onceanu-Hadârcă, Viorel Cibotaru, Victor Micu, Sergiu Prodan, Igor Dodon, Aureliu Batrînac, Alexandru Pleşca, Dionis Cenuşa, Kalman Mizsei, Petru Bodarev, Marian Lupu, IUlia Iabanji, Pavel Filip, Andrian Candu.