Moldova, Russia to revive economic cooperation ties

Chisinau, 1 February /MOLDPRES/ - The leaders of the departments for international economic cooperation at the economics ministries of Moldova and Russia today brought together at a joint meeting, to establish a common agenda with a view of reviving the platforms of communication and bilateral economic collaboration.

According to the Economics Ministry’s press service, the participants in the meeting discussed Moldova’s openness to organise a meeting of the Moldovan-Russian inter-governmental commission for commercial and economic cooperation in the first half of 2016. The Moldovan authorities are also ready to organise a bilateral meeting at the level of co-heads of the commission in next March.

Also, the participants in the meeting tackled subjects on the bilateral agenda, such as removing tariff and non-tariff obstacles to trade, setting up a Moldova Exhibitions and Commerce Centre in Moscow, aspects of cooperation in the railway transport sector, in terms of movement of passenger trains on the route Moldova – Russia.

The trade relations between the two countries worsened after Moscow had put an embargo on the imports of Moldovan wines on 30 May 2013 and restrictions on supplies of fruits in July 2014, removed in stages as an experiment during 2015. As a result, Russia lost the position of the biggest sales market for the Moldovan goods, and its share fell to 12.4 per cent in the first nine months of 2015 against 26 per cent in 2013, according to the National Statistics Bureau (BNS).

BNS data also shows that the imports from Russia decreased by 23.5 per cent in the first 11 months of the last year. Russia lost the first position in the ranking of partner countries, both in imports and exports, with the place occupied by Romania at present.

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor L. Alcaza)