Investments Agency says time is ripe to invest in Moldova now

Chisinau, 19 November /MOLDPRES/ - An unprecedented number of investors, financers, importers and exporters from Moldova and another 30 countries will participate in the most important economic event in the country, Moldova Business Week 2018, organized by the government in Chisinau on 27-29 November.

The participants in the event will learn, from the first source, about the investment potential of those seven strategic sectors of the national economy: Energy, Infrastructure, Automotive and Electronics, Information Technology and Communications, Agriculture and Food Industry, Tourism and Light Industry. “Now, time is ripe to invest in Moldova,”  “radiography” of the business climate reads.       

„Due to the fact that the government committed to implement a string of ambitious reforms, meant to improve the investment climate, we have more conclusive reasons to say that Moldova has potential to attract, as well as to maintain and develop the efficient development of foreign direct investments. The latter would allow local companies transition to activities generating more added value and opportunities of integration into the value chains of the world economy,” the director of the Investments Agency, Rodica Verbeniuc, has said.  

Verbeniuc noted that the Agency’s team would strengthen efforts to elaborate and promote a brand of Moldova as destination for investments, - InvestMoldova – with distinct visual identity, backed by competitive opportunities from all sectors described as strategic for the national economy.  

We will focus on relevance, efficiency and results when using instruments of promotion, such as economic diplomacy, B2B and B2G business missions, roundtables, forums and international exhibitions, Rodica Verbeniuc also said.   

At present, Moldova has one of the most competitive fiscal systems from the region, with an income tax of ten per cent for HoReCa (Hotels/Restaurants/Cafe), six per cent for the residents of the Free Economic Zones (FEZ) and a single tax of seven per cent for the IT Parks’ residents. The country has the competitive rate in the region in terms of social insurances contributions – 18 per cent. The number of bodies with control duties was cut by 70 per cent and economic agents need by 300 permissive acts less, in order to legally develop their business. Starting from July 2018, the business environment has been able to ask for the necessary documents in the online regime through the Automated Information System, which works as  Single Window, the analysis of Moldova’s business environment also reads.   

According to the “radiography” of the business environment, entrepreneurs meeting certain conditions can get the subsidization of newly created jobs – the government provides them 40,000 lei for each 100+1 job. According to estimations by the Economics and Infrastructure Ministry, in the next two years, Moldova will attract a net flow of investments worth 380 million dollars and 10,000 jobs will be created. The Investments Agency is the governmental structure directly in charge of implementation of the national strategy of investments’ attraction and promotion of exports for the 2016-2020 years.  

Moldova has access to a market of about 800 potential consumers, in conditions when it has signed free trade agreements with 43 states of EU, Commonwealth of Independent States and Asia. As a result, in 2017, the Moldovan exports amounted to 2.5 billion dollars, up by 19 per cent against 2016. In the first nine months of 2018, this index exceeded already two billion dollars. The distribution of the export products has reconfigured as well: more than two thirds of the goods are exported to the European Union (70 per cent). At the same time, the sales of industrial goods have increased by 68 per cent in those seven Free Economic Zones since early 2018 against the year before.