Moldova lags behind in development because it has to deal with short-term dangers, said jurist Ștefan Gligor. He specified the existing threats in IPN’s public debate “Why does modernization of the economy stall?”.

“We had a captured state and mobilized against state capture as development in an authoritarian country is not possible. Another threat resides in the fact that the absolute majority of sectors of the economy are monopolized and there are politicians behind the most important players, who gather the gains and adjust the legislation according to their needs,” stated the standing expert of IPN’s project “Overcoming European integration stereotypes through communication”.

According to him, corruption and the regulation of the economy are also threats to development. “The state plays the role of an obstacle to the private initiative. Instead of being partners of private initiatives, the state and the functionaries act as opponents. The ‘heavier weapons’ then start to act – the taxes, exaggerated licensing requirements, etc. In the Ministry of Economy and other institutions, there are functionaries who actually do not understand how business is done and do not realize that investing in Moldova’s economy is a real act of heroism,” stated Ștefan Gligor.

He added that even if Moldova had a proper economic development model, this would not be successful because of the current situation in the justice sector. “First if all, we must remedy this sector in Moldova. According to world rankings, Moldovan justice by the independence indicator is among the last ten countries. But this indicator is very important for investors,” stated the jurist.

He noted that the lack of consistency in actions is another problem hampering the achievement of the development objectives. “In Moldova, the governments change more often than the Parliament’s mandate and this is the first sign that we will be unable to achieve much,” concluded Ștefan Gligor.

The public debate “Why does modernization of the economy stall?” forms part of the series “Overcoming European integration stereotypes through communication” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.