Business people from Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan encouraged to invest in Moldova

Chisinau, 27 March /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Minister Pavel Filip has encouraged business people from Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan to invest in Moldova, stressing that that Moldovan cabinet had launched a string of reforms to back and facilitate the work of foreign investors. The PM made the urge at a Business Forum organized on the occasion of a meeting of the heads of government of the member states of the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development (GUAM), held in Kiev.    

According to the government’s communication and protocol department, Prime Minister Pavel Filip said that Moldova offered an attractive environment for foreign investments. Thus, seven Free Economic Zones (FEZ) and ten industrial parks work in Moldova at present; the country has access to international communication ways, including the sea transport through the Giurgiulesti International Port. At the same time, a string of measures have been lately undertaken to support the development of the business community; the authorities with control duties were cut by 70 per cent and the number of permissive acts will be reduced by about 60 per cent. At the same time, Moldova has a Free Trade Agreement with the European Union, which provides more advantages to business people.    

“Moldova’s government promotes an active policy to create needed conditions for developing export-oriented production. The development of a mutually advantageous cooperation within GUAM is one of Moldova’s priorities, which along with the country’s European integration, represents the most successful formula to promote policies of regional cooperation in the economic sector,” Pavel Filip stressed.  

At the same time, the PM said the Moldovan authorities were open for implementing new mechanisms of collaboration between the GUAM member states, in order to turn to good account the present economic potential. In the context, the prime minister emphasized that the holding of the Business Forum was an extra proof of the organization’s importance and prospects for development.  

“It is necessary that we identify new forms of more productive cooperation within GUAM, which are to meet the new international tendencies. In this respect, the creation of the Free Trade Zone, according to the principles of the World Trade Organization, without restrictions, is that very instrument able to revive GUAM’s work,” Pavel Filip added.   

The GUAM Business Forum brought together over 70 business people and representatives of the business associations from Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova. The participants discussed possibilities of boosting the partnership and the importance of developing joint economic projects.