Law on supporting small and medium business is inferior to the previous one – expert

The Law on supporting the area of small and medium enterprises is clearly poorer because of the way some facilities for the development of small business and entrepreneurship are stipulated compared with the previous law, Eugen Roscovan, the head of the Small Business Association (AMB) declares. The expert told Info-Prim Neo that regarding the support offered by the state to the small and medium enterprises, the law stipulates that the directions of this support are settled through state strategies. Support of the state in this field is performed in a differentiated manner, depending on the economic agents, using different forms and methods of support and financial resources. The Government and the authorities of the local public administration are obliged, according to their duties, to elaborate policies and to undertake actions aiming at contributing to the protection of micro, small and medium enterprises. According to Roscovan, the former law had concrete provisions and namely how many percents from the income fund had to be transferred for the support of small business and entrepreneurship and a system of facilities was working. As a solution, these notions could have been included as amendments to the previous law and would have strengthened the positions of entrepreneurship and small business, Roscovan states. The head of AMB also told Info-Prim Neo that the new law has a “direct negative” impact on the Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (EGPRSP). Through this new law the attitude of state towards business environment is becoming more bureaucratic, no simulative conditions are created, it is not clear how the economic agents that want to initiate or develop a business will be supported, no development mechanism for the small and medium enterprises is created, Roscovan declared. In this way, the law is one more bureaucratic document, which can not positively influence the business environment and will not improve the economic development of the Republic of Moldova. More, it will be of no real use in fighting poverty. “Both the minister of Economy and Commerce who presented the draft of this law and the Parliament which approved it, made an ordinary document of poor quality”, Roscovan added. The Law on supporting the field of small and medium enterprises was adopted by the Parliament on July 2006. The law came into force in August, after it was published in “The Official Monitor of the Republic of Moldova”. The Government has to present to the Parliament within 6 months proposals on adjusting the legislation and normative acts to the new law. As well, the Government will annually present to the Parliament reports about the implementation of the state strategy on supporting the field of small and medium enterprises.