Roadmap on Moldova-Russia economic cooperation to be given final touches this July

Chisinau, 5 July /MOLDPRES/ - The Roadmap on the economic cooperation between Moldova and Russia will be given final touches this month. The co-head of the Moldovan-Russian inter-governmental commission for economic cooperation, Deputy Prime Minister, Economics Minister Octavian Calmic made statements to this effect after a today’s meeting with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Rogozin.

According to Calmic, at the meeting, the sides tackled issues of the bilateral commercial and economic ties between the two states, in particular, the export in Moldovan goods to the Russian market, removing tariff/non-tariff obstacles to mutual trade, as well as simplifying the import in agro-food/wine products to Russia.

“We reviewed the latest developments, unfortunately negative, of the trade exchanges between Russia and Moldova. We have decreases both in exports and import. We discussed also the conditions for export in Moldovan goods to Russia’s market, problems of customs duties, hoping that we will settle the present problems. We also debated the subject of transport service, possibilities of extending, as well as the situation in the energy sector,” Economics Minister Octavian Calmic said.    

“Presently, the most important thing is to give the final touches to the roadmap, which will comprise all key elements of bilateral cooperation in the economic sector. We agreed that experts will put the finishing touches to this document in July this year, and afterwards it will be approved by the co-heads of the Moldovan—Russian inter-governmental commission for economic cooperation. Subsequently, the roadmap will be implemented,” Calmic added.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin specified that it was important to identify solutions in the Moldovan-Russian relations for economic cooperation. “Unfortunately, our delegation has not visited Moldova for two years. Many things have changed. We have earlier conveyed to Moldova’s leadership the model of the roadmap, which contains the decisions due to be taken, and afterwards the latter are to be synchronized with the decisions of Russia.”   

“We are sure that it is important for Moldova to rely on the market of Russia and Customs Union. We plan to end the first stage of work in next September, and in November this year already, we will convene a meeting of the joint commission and will continue working on the enumerated subjects,” Rogozin noted.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin is on a 5-6 July working visit to Chisinau and Tiraspol. The Russian official will have meetings with Prime Minister Pavel Filip, and on 6 July, he will visit Tiraspol to meet the leader of the breakaway Transnistrian republic, Yevgeny Shevchuk, and the so-called speaker of the supreme soviet, Vadim Krasnoselsky. Last time, Dmitry Rogozin visited Moldova in 2014.    

(Reporter A. Plitoc, editor A. Raileanu)