Moldova, Japan to speed up parliamentary dialogue

Chisinau, 16 April /MOLDPRES/ - Moldova and Japan will speed up the parliamentary dialogue. Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu and the Kiev-based Japanese Ambassador to Moldova Shigeki Sumi tackled the issue at a meeting on 15 April, the parliament’s communication and public relations department has reported.

The officials addressed a string of initiatives meant to develop the Moldovan-Japanese parliamentary cooperation potential. It is about the opening of Moldova’s embassy in Tokyo in 2015, organising mutual visits at parliamentary level, missions of Moldovan and Japanese businessmen.

Candu highlighted that Japan was an important development partner of Moldova, which backed the latter via different projects, including at financial and technical levels. ”The projects financially supported by Japan, especially at economic level, are among the most successful in Moldova, especially enjoying the appreciation of businesspeople and farmers. It is important to benefit from further support by expanding the provided assistance and by attracting Japanese investments into the Moldovan economy,” Andrian Candu said. Candu added that the Japanese investors might find active platforms to develop business in Moldova and, respectively, to export products to EU market. 

Andrian Candu stressed the importance to launch talks on signing an agreement on avoiding double taxation as to income tax and the one on mutual protection of investments between Moldova and Japan.

For his part, Shigeki Sumi reiterated Japan’s willingness to back Moldova, as well as his personal support to develop the Moldovan-Japanese parliamentary ties. ”It is important to expand the Moldovan-Japanese cooperation at different levels and Moldova to benefit from a strong lobby in the Japanese parliament,” Sumi said.

At the same time, Shigeki Sumi said that, in order to promote Moldova, he was set to convince more Japanese tourists to spend vacations in Moldova, which represents an attractive tourism destination.

In 1992-2010, Japan provided Moldova with non-reimbursable assistance in amount of 72.7 million dollars and loans of 48.2 million dollars. A string of projects were implemented in agriculture, food industry, health and education in Moldova with Japan’s support.

(Editor M. Jantovan)