Moldova becomes member of European Fashion Council

Chisinau, 15 November /MOLDPRES/ - Moldova has become member of the European Fashion Council (EFC). The head of the Employers’ Association from the Light Industry (APIUS), Alexandra Can, unveiled prospects of this accession at a news conference today.  

“The status of EFC member gives companies from Moldova’s fashion industry possibility to participate in specialty events organized in the member countries and to attract public, partners, professionals in the sector, investors and wholesale buyers from different countries,” Alexandra Can said.    

In the context, the APIUS head referred to the brand Din Inima (From the Bottom of the Heart) – the main product of the Association, launched in partnership with the Competitiveness Project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the government of Sweden, as well as the Moldovan Investments Attraction and Export Promotion Organization (MIEPO). Can emphasized that this brand had been already well-known worldwide, offering more opportunities for the native light industry.     

For her part, the director of the USAID and Swedish government’s  Competitiveness Project, Doina Nistor, said that the accession to EFC was an achievement that would back Moldova’s efforts to promote a strong, diversified economy and oriented towards export in the light industry sector, especially clothes, footwear and accessories. “In this field, we can already speak about success, as we export more than import, jobs have been created, the branch has future and is attractive for foreign markets,” Doina Nistor said.    

Asked by MOLDPRES whether, once promoted abroad, the native brands would  be more accessible for Moldova’s citizens, Alexandra Can stressed that “everything that is good is also expensive.” “It is nothing bad in the fact that our producers find sales markets, where Moldovan goods are appreciated and sold at high prices,” the APIUS head said. On the other hand, Doina Nistor underlined that one of the goals of enterprises from the national light industry was to “create qualitative goods for all financial possibilities of the consumers, with different prices.”       

Attending the conference, Bronislav Denev, a representative of the Bulgarian Embassy in Chisinau, which supported Moldova’s accession to the European Fashion Council, said that, although he was a patriot of Bulgarian products, nevertheless, he cannot but recognize that “some goods from Moldova are quite elegant.”       

The European Fashion Council was founded in 2007 and includes 26 member states, along with Moldova, which joined the organization on 6 November this year. The light industry sector from Moldova represents about 400 production companies which provide jobs to more than 23,000 employees and generate 17.4 per cent of the country’s exports. The Employers’ Association of Light Industry brings together 102 enterprises of clothes, footwear, leather goods and accessories, many of which are part of the Din Inima brand, backed by USAID, Swedish government and MIEPO.   

(Reporter L. Grubii, editor L. Alcaza)