Moldovan – Russian economic cooperation committee meets in Moscow

Chisinau, 29 November /MOLDPRES/ – Deputy Prime Ministers of Moldova and the Russian Federation, Octavian Calmic and Dmitry Rogozin signed today in Moscow, the meeting protocol of Moldovan – Russian Commission for Economic Cooperation, which is part of the Action Plan for the development of economic relations between Moldova and Russia for 2016 – 2017.

The Ministry of Economy's press service said that priority actions include documents of bilateral cooperation in trade, business, energy sector, transport, agriculture, industry, migration assistance, humanitarian aid and regional cooperation etc.

The Moldovan side called for the elimination of duties imposed by the Russian Federation on 19 categories of goods and non-tariff measures applied on export of food products, including alcoholic beverages. The theme that was addressed in November 2016 by Prime Minister of Moldova Pavel Filip, in his address to Russian President Vladimir Putin, currently is being examined and a final decision will be taken at the meeting of heads of states.

During the talks in Moscow the parts managed to overcome the transport problem, the Russian pledging to deliver 75,000 permits for Moldovan carriers in the Russian Federation and 750 of transit permits on Russian territory to third countries, which would greatly facilitate trade between Moldova and Russia, but also our exports to countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, etc. According to Minister of Economy Octavian Calmic, "I am sure that additionally, parties must sign an agreement that has been discussed and settled. This should occur in the first quarter of 2017 and immediately thereafter the Russian Federation will provide all these quantities of permits for carriers of Moldova." This year Moldova has benefited only a few thousand of permits for transportation goods to the Russian Federation and only 50 permits for transit to third countries.

Referring to cooperation in the energy sector, it was agreed that the parties would create all necessary conditions and contribute to the signing of contracts in the middle term between "Moldovagaz" and "Gazprom" of gas supply and transit on the territory of Moldova, by the end of 2016.

In the context of cooperation in food sphere, it was addressed to eliminate restrictions on wine exports, products of plant and animal origin from Moldova to the Russian Federation, as well as strengthening efforts to open exhibition Centre "Moldova" on "VDNH" territory until 1 April 2018.

So as to enhance business cooperation in the Commission, it was signed a memorandum of cooperation between the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Moldova and the Business Council at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation. Moldova's position is to go from list of companies authorized to import into the Russian Federation to non-discrimination requirements that will be met by domestic economic agents and supervision of their implementation to be carried out by relevant structures of Moldova.

During the Committee meeting of the Moldovan – Russian economic cooperation, which was held after a break of four years, the parties reviewed and approved a series of measures to be taken in the context of boosting bilateral trade, economic and other links between Moldova and the Russian Federation. Welcoming the resumption of work of the Commission, Deputy Prime Minister Octavian Calmic emphasized that our country was interested in developing bilateral relations with the Russian Federation at all sizes. The minister of economy said that the aim of establishing direct relations between businesses in both countries, there were included representatives of different regions of the country in the Moldovan delegation, including the Gagauzia and eastern districts.

The importance of resuming the work of the Commission was mentioned by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who noted that that was a very good platform for both the development of bilateral relations, as well as solving the problems between the two countries over the recent four years. "Today's meeting has shown that we can reach a consensus when it comes to solving problems in different areas, starting  with our national interests," said the Russian official.

The next meeting of the Moldovan – Russian Commission for economic cooperation will be held in 2017 in Chisinau.

(Reporter A. Mardare, editor M. Jantovan)