● MONDAY, February 22
NGOs: Setting such a low rate of increase for excise duties on cigarettes for 2016 cannot be justified
A number of nongovernmental organizations and civil society activists expressed their concern about the policy to increase excise duties on tobacco products only by adjusting these to the inflation rate forecast for the year 2016 (10.5%). In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Pavel Filip, these say the setting of such a low rate of increase in excise duties on cigarettes for 2016 cannot be justified. The letter says that the Ministry of Finance proposed to increase the excise duties on cigarettes to a much lesser extent than the rate of inflation of 10.5%. Thus, for one pack of filtered cigarettes sold for 10 lei, the increase in the excise duty for 2016 will represent only 5.2%, while for a pack sold for 20 lei - only 2.6%. This applies similarly to the cigarettes without filters, for which the increase in the excise is only 10%, meaning it would be under the projected inflation.
Industrial Parks’ assets to be sold to resident companies
The unused assets of the Industrial Parks could be sold by direct negotiations only to the resident companies of these parks. This is provided in a bill to amend and supplement a number of Cabinet decisions, which was drafted by the Ministry of Economy. A contest commission set up to select the resident companies of the Industrial Park by the park’s managing company will organize and hold the contests to sell assets rented by resident companies by direct negotiations. The commission will examine the applications to purchase assets and will draw up the required documents.
● TUESDAY, February 23
NAER suggests setting ceiling on fuel prices once in two weeks
The National Agency for Energy Regulation (NAER) proposes setting a ceiling on the selling prices of oil products every two weeks. The proposal is contained in the new draft methodology for forming and applying prices of oil products that was discussed in public debates on February 23. NAER director Octavian Lungu said the methodology is aimed at reducing the prices of oil products for end-users. “Our expectations are that the costs will be reduced as we heard not only once that there are too many gas stations. By introducing a ceiling on prices, we will ensure normal competition between operators,” he stated. Head of the Agency’s Tariff Policy and Economic Analysis Division Alexandru Mija, who is the author of the new methodology, said the price will no longer be set by each operator apart as there will be calculated the average costs in the sector. “The prices of oil products will consist of four main components: average value of the Platts quotations for the main oil products and of the Argus quotations; the excise duty and the value added tax put in accordance with the Tax Code of the Republic of Moldova, and the specific profit margin that should include companies’ costs and profit,” he said.
Experts plead for transparency on capital market
The raider attacks witnessed during the last few years, especially in the banking sector, took place through the agency of the capital market, namely of independent registrars, expert Natan Garstea stated in an economic debate held by the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives “Viitorul” and Radio Free Europe. “The independent registrars should safeguard the interests of shareholders. But the securities market is small and their incomes are insignificant. For example, ten independent registrars in 2014 had an income of 400,000 lei. These ten registrars monitor property to the value of tens of billions of lei. If a disloyal investor wants to gain control of a bank, this could offer €10,000 or even €100,000 bribe and the registries are not resistant to such cases of corruption,” stated Natan Garstea. He stated that there were many cases when bank shareholders informed that they were dispossessed of shares namely through an independent registrar. The filed lawsuits didn’t produce real results. The Prosecutor’s Office usually seizes all the documents from the registrar, while the trial can last for even three years. The lack of transparency makes these cases to disappear from public attention, while the shares remain in the possession of the shareholder that obtained the holding this way.
More service providers present quality parameters to ICT regulator
The number of service providers that measured and presented the quality parameters of their services to the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology rose by 13% during a year to 153. The Agency published a relevant report on its website to familiarize the consumers with the quality of the electronic communications services that they use or intend to purchase. According to the report, the ratio of presenting information about the values of the given parameters to the number of providers that are obliged to make such information public was 97.5%. Of the 153 providers, only 31 published the information on their websites.
● WEDNESDAY, February 24
International project to improve business climate in Moldova
The investment climate in Moldova will be reformed, including by improving the framework for regulating the entrepreneurial activity, within a project that was launched by the World Bank Group on February 24. The project is designed to ensure the producers’ access to the market, including of those from the agricultural sector, to enhance the competitiveness of exports and to ensure a higher degree of protection of investments. Project manager Lily Begiashvili said that a set of policy analyses will be carried out to achieve the announced objectives. There will be provided solutions for eliminating particular constraints, taking into account the best practices used in other states.The value of the project is US$3.2 million. The money was allocated by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). The launch of the new project was preceded by the presentation of a study of the cost of doing business in Moldova in 2015. This shows that the Moldovan entrepreneurs are put in the situation to obtain over 400 permits, authorizations and certificates for staring and developing a business. Their cost amounts to 136 million lei.
China intends to offer preferential loans to Moldovan agriculture
The People’s Republic of China is looking for solutions to provide preferential technical loans to Moldova, China’s Ambassador in Chisinau Yinghong Zhang said in a meeting with Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Eduard Grama. The officials discussed the bilateral agreements in agriculture and the possibility of extending the cooperation relations. “I pay increased attention to the cooperation between our countries in agriculture. During my stay of about half a year in Moldova, I convinced myself that you have a country rich in agricultural resources and agrifood products of a high quality,” stated the diplomat.
Contracts for purchase of electric power under negotiation
The negotiations on the new contracts for the purchase of electricity (the current ones expire at end-March) are under way. This was asked by Prime Minister Pavel Filip to provide succinct information on the issue in the February 24 meeting of the Cabinet. Calmac said that Energocom – the company that purchases electric power for the state – and the private power distributor on January – February have held negotiations will all the suppliers and exporters of electricity from Russia and Ukraine and with other exporters. “The first signals about the price show that we can count on significant reductions, but the negations go on and I do not want to anticipate,” said the minister, adding that representatives of the Russian gas giant Gazprom will come to Moldova next week.
● THURSDAY, February 25
Industrial park to be inaugurated in Cahul
An industrial park will be set up in Cahul town. A decision to this effect was taken by the Cabinet in its recent meeting. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Octavian Calmac said that this is a local initiative. The former dairy complex located in the town, which is owned by the Cahul District Council, can serve as an industrial platform for creating the park. There will be no need to change the purpose of the plot of 6 hectares on which the park will be set up. Octavian Calmac noted that the building will be reconstructed and the infrastructure will be renovated during the next two years. The managing company SRL “Sud-Invest Company” will deal with the creation and rehabilitation of the technical infrastructure and administrative building, the local public authorities will connect the industrial park to public utilities, while the selected resident companies will built the production infrastructure. An estimated 80 million lei is needed for these works.
Trading authorizations will be issued during one day
The authorization for trading will be obtained during one day. The Ministry of Economy suggested relevant amendments and supplements to the legislation. Now an entrepreneur has to present seven documents and needs 60 days to get such an authorization. Deputy Minister of Economy Vitalie Iurcu told a news conference that the bill to amend and supplement the Law on Domestic Trade, drafted by the Ministry of Economy, will be soon submitted to the Government and then to Parliament. This defines a new procedure for obtaining trading authorizations – by notification. According to the official, the switchover to the notification system will enable the economic entities to interact only with the mayor’s office, which, for its part, will send information about the new trader to all the institutions by the one-stop shop. The optimization of the process will allow reducing the number of documents needed for obtaining an authorization from seven to one and of the number of inspections from five to one. All the procedures will be carried out through the specialized software e-Trade, which will significantly simplify the process of initiating trading activities.
● FRIDAY, February 26
Moratorium on inspections at economic entities is populist action, opposition MPs
The three-month moratorium on state inspections at economic entities, which was voted by Parliament on February 25, is a populist action. Such statements were made during the program “Place for dialogue” on the public station Radio Moldova. Socialist MP Vasile Bolea considers that this moratorium will only pave the way for other illegalities. “This is a populist action. The law says that the Government can extend this moratorium for another three months. How can the Government extend something that was voted by Parliament? I do not understand how can we cancel all the state inspections? If a case similar to the one that happened in the café “La soacra” occurs, who will answer?” he asked.
● SATURDAY, February 27
Solutions for removing barriers to export of fruit
The modernization of the national labs and creation of a central accreditation body are the solutions identified by the Ministry of Economy for removing the barriers to the export of fruit, Deputy Minister of Economy Vitalie Iurcu said in a meeting with representatives of the Association of Fruit Producers and Exporters “Moldova Fruct”. The representatives of exporters informed about the problems they face, referring especially to the penetration of new markets, the necessity of promoting the Moldovan products abroad and international recognition of the results of the analyses carried out by national labs. According to a press release of the Ministry of Economy, Vitalie Iurcu said the penetration of the new markets has always been a difficult process. The situation worsened especially after Russia imposed a ban on imports. The main solution in this regard is to ensure cooperation between the Association and the Moldova Investment Attraction and Export Promotion Organization.
More chances for women to develop businesses
The supporting of women entrepreneurs will become a priority direction of the strategy for developing small and medium-sized enterprises in 2012-2020. The Ministry of Economy submitted a proposal to this effect in a move to offer greater support to the women in starting SMEs. Currently, only 27% of the SMEs working in Moldova are run by women though the women represent 51.9% of the population. The men’s entrepreneurship prevails in the country. The women encounter big difficulties in accessing loans. The cases of discrimination weren’t fully excluded when it is about the participation of businesses managed by women in the implementation of projects funded by the state or with external financing in communities. The successful models of women’s entrepreneurship existing in other countries are insufficiently promoted among women.
Additional possibility of paying overdue salaries at state-run companies
The state-run companies and commercial organizations where the state holds all or most of the shares will be able to use the financial resources obtained from leasing out assets that are not used in production for paying the overdue taxes into the state budget and overdue salaries to employees. Such provisions are contained in the proposal for amending the regulations concerning the leasing out of unused assets approved by the Government. The Ministry of Economy, which submitted the proposal, considers that if the overdue salaries are paid with this money, the social tensions created in connection with the salary arrears at some of the companies will be reduced. The unused assets could also be leased out by state-run companies or companies with state capital that work within industrial parks, but the leases will be signed for a period that will not exceed the period of activity of the park. The state institutions will be able to rent unused assets free of charge.
