Chisinau hosts business forum on commercial, investment opportunities in the Black Sea region

Chisinau, 28 January /MOLDPRES/ - A business forum titled:  „Commercial and investment opportunities in the BSEC region” was held in Chisinau today. The event was organised within the Moldovan Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (CCI) chairmanship of the Business Council of the Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).
 
The forum’s main goal was to provide a safe platform to the business environment from BSEC, in order to develop the economic opportunities in the Black Sea region.
 
CCI head Valeriu Lazar highlighted that Moldova took over the BSEC chairmanship in November 2014, which provided it with major opportunities to develop the huge potential that offers the membership to this organisation. „We have to fully benefit from the expertise that the BSEC member states may offer us, I refer especially to Romania, Turkey and the Balkan states. A priority for Moldova is to attract as much foreign capital as possible, to diversify the sales markets. The BSEC member states can offer us an excellent jumping board in order to also access other markets outside those of the Black Sea region,” Lazar said.
 
Valeriu Lazar added that it is extremely important that Moldova used all national brands as a platform to facilitate exports. „The trademarks represent the head of the spear in the modern marketing strategy, and such events give us an excellent opportunity that we also provide our partners with the expertise we got,” Lazar said.
 
For his part, Deputy Foreign and European Integration Minister Tudor Ulianovschi underlined that Moldova’s main priorities within BSEC were to ensure economic ties based on consolidated dialogue and cooperate in the Black Sea region, develop transport infrastructure, regional health system and tourism sector. „We are set to develop long-term projects in the area. Till summer, we will organise four topic-related ministerial conferences and the small and medium- enterprises sector is a priority one and needs a pragmatic approach,” Ulianovschi said.
 
Attending the event, Deputy Economics Minister Octavian Calmic specified that Moldova was in free trade regime with all BSEC states. „The trade exchange with these countries represents 55 per cent of the total export-import amount. In the new conditions, this quota will certainly increase. Taking into account the fact that Moldova is landlocked, a special priority becomes the development of road infrastructure, which will also ensure an improvement of the tourism industry, that is absolutely necessary in the cooperation area. Thus, we will manage to remove the economic obstacles and facilitate the trade with our regional partners,” Calmic said.  
 
In the context, the head of the Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ionel Constantin, said that Romania had an important role within BSEC and would provide Moldova with all necessary support, in order to participate in the big projects implemented by this organisation. „We have to provide a system of equal values and a friendly environment for the states in the region, including those which are members of the Commonwealth of Independent States,” Constantin said.
 
The BSEC Business Council was created on 30 August 1992 and started to work on 1 May 1993. Starting from December 1992, it has the statute of observer within the organisation and acts mainly in order to identify and promote cooperation and investment projects in the area, via financial institutions and other international organisations.