Moldovan business environment's representatives welcome set of laws on limiting abuses against business

Chisinau, 18 December /MOLDPRES/ - Representatives of the Moldovan business environment positively appreciate the set of laws on limiting abuses against the business. At the same time, some NGOs criticize the laws, putting that “the amendment of the legislation will undermine the residents’ trust in the governance.”

Contacted by MOLDPRES, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) Sergiu Harea said that there were abuses against Moldovan business representatives and everybody found them out. “The set of laws proposed is meant to reduce the pressure on the management of economic agents, especially of the small- and medium-sized business. The initiative is already discussed by the business environment at different levels and backed, to a great extent, by the economic agents,” Harea said.    

The initiative is also supported by the head of the Employers’ Association of Restaurants and Entertainment Locals, Aneta Zasavitchi, who describes it as positive and expected by the business environment. “The set of laws will release enterprises not only from the burden of controls, but also from the fear of being imprisoned for minor infringements. Besides, it will allow economic agents to avoid blockages of activity, if they are inquired by control bodies,” Zasavitchi noted.      

Contacted by MOLDPRES, Valeriu Bodiu, the director of the industrial company INTROSCOP, specialized in producing wiring and power modules, said that the initiative to amend the legislation was good, noting that he would made proposals for it. “Now, it remains to be seen how the draft will look when approved by the parliament,” Bodiu added.

The director of the Market Economy Institute (IEP), Roman Chirca, welcomed the cabinet’s initiative on removal of pressures on the business environment through decriminalization of some economic offences. He specified that the goal of people criticizing the change of the legislation was to manipulate the public opinion. “Decriminalization does not mean the legalization of economic offences. The law will not have a retroactive effect,” Chirca said.  

In late last week, more NGOs of Moldova criticized the draft law on “decriminalization of economic offences.” Thus, the Centre for Legal Resources from Moldova and the Expert-Grup Centre made public a stance, in which they note that “the adoption of the draft law in the variant proposed will undermine even more the residents’ confidence in the governance, legitimacy of the present composition and the de facto interests of the MPs and will show the fundamental deficiencies of the state law system from Moldova.”   

The initiative to reduce abuses against entrepreneurs belongs to the Democratic Party of Moldova. The draft sees reducing competences of some state structures, especially of police, as to some economic offences. At the same time, economic agents breaching the law for the first time will have possibility to repair the damage inflicted ahead of being called to account. The draft was subjected to public discussions.    

(Reporter A. Zara, editor A. Raileanu)