A group consisting of economic experts could monitor the process of privatizing state property that was recently announced. The group can be formed of four-five economists, including of the Independent Analytical Center “Expert-Grup”. Such a proposal was put forward by the main administrator of the Free Economic Zone Balti Marin Ciobanu in a news conference at IPN. According to Ciobanu, this will be a civic position because a lot of people do not know the subtleties of the privatization process.

The manager said that to implement such an initiative, a special normative framework is not needed. “Several economists should come together and analyze the business plan, who takes part and how the tender contest was organized. They can also determine if the privatization process was held in a transparent way. We can provide several experts to say how all the segments are organized, including the announcement and coopting of potential investors,” said Marin Ciobanu.

According to him, the privatization procedure in Moldova is incorrect, the Chisinau International Airport being a relevant example. “In the case of the privatization of the airport, the tender contest was announced in summer.  Who wants to invest US$40-50 million when the administration boards of large corporations are away?” asked Marin Ciobanu.

In such situations, the privatization should be monitored by economists. “The privatization term should be not of a month, but of six months. We must make approaches abroad to announce the privatization process as we have embassies through which we can do this,” said Marin Ciobanu. According to him, a healthy competition should exist between companies, with real investors.

The Public Property Agency announced a new privatization round for February 19 – April 8. Among the state-owned companies that will be sold are SA “Barza Alba”, “Tutun –CTC”, the Universal Central Store UNIC, and “Floare - Carpet”. A sum of over 1 billion lei is to be obtained from the sale of shares in 24 joint stock companies.