Bureaucracy, the underground economy and the absence of labor force are the main three factors that hamper the economic development of Moldova, said Minister of Economic Development and Digitalization Dumitru Alaiba. According to him, among the main directions of his team’s actions are the reduction of bureaucracy and digitization of processes for the purpose of rooting out corruption from the economy. The Deputy Prime Minister noted that the absence of labor force is a problem that can be solved by the legal employment of foreign citizens, IPN reports.
The official said there are now over 500 public services that are intended for entrepreneurs and are provided by different institutions. Out of these, 208 services have been already digitized. The reduction of bureaucracy and digitization of processes will help get rid of corruption and ensure economic growth.
“This is out most visible action, but is not the only one. Bureaucracy costs us a lot. By the first bureaucracy reduction package alone, we help the entrepreneurs to save at least 50 million lei a year and at least 200,000 working hours a year. This is time we already reduced from the waiting time. Bureaucracy always goes hand in hand with corruption. When the procedures are complex, there are lines and time for compliance is required, corruption is always close to solve the problem. By digitization and bureaucracy reduction, we aim to root out corruption from the economy,” Dumitru Alaiba stated in the program “Reflection Points” on Vocea Basarabiei channel.
Moreover, the minister said the underground economy is one of the major problems experienced by Moldova and this causes huge losses to the state budget and inequity among businessmen.
“42% of our economy is gray. Practically, we have half of the economy that is not covered by the GDP. This is serious not only because the state does not collect particular revenues, but this also creates inequity as someone pays taxes and a particular price for products and services, while others do not pay these taxes. Where there is cash, there is evasion. The most serious thing is that owing to this, we, the Government, do not communicate with half of the economy. Any law, subsidy or fiscal policy does not reach half of the economy as this economy is outside the remit of the state,” said Dumitru Alaiba.
The official also said that the absence of labor force is due to the massive migration of citizens and can be solved by the employment of citizens of other countries.
“We must be more open and have capacity to enable citizens of other states to work in the Republic of Moldova legally, based on particular criteria, to pay taxes here so that we could pay pensions from these taxes,” explained the Deputy Premier.
