Minister of Economy opts for renegotiation of concession contract of Chisinau International Airport

Chisinau, 20 August /MOLDPRES/- The concession contract for Chisinau International Airport could be renegotiated. Minister of Economy and Infrastructure Vadim Brînzan made the statement today, after yesterday, the company that holds the concession right was sold to another owner.

Brinzan said he will ask to be included on the agenda of the Supreme Security Council the issue on change of owners of Avia Invest company. "This transaction can be a starting point for the state institutions to sit down with the new owner and to understand the investor's intentions and plans, trying to renegotiate the concession contract to balance the conditions in the citizen's interest and to clean up the airport.”

According to Brinzan, among the contractual provisions that could be renegotiated are the value of investments in the airport terminal, executed by the concessionaire, and the share owed to the state from the development tax paid by each passenger.

"The contact is complex. It consists of several hundred pages and several hundred annexes. According to the contract, the concessionaire has the right to charge each passenger with 9 euros, this being the development tax. At a flow of 3 million passengers, an amount of 27 million euros is accumulated annually. Part of this amount goes to the Civil Aviation Authority, namely 1.75 euros. We can try to renegotiate this amount, increase it for example, so that a larger part of the 9 euros is returned to the state. Other topics we could renegotiate would be the investments that the investor is going to make in modernizing this airport ”, he said.

The minister said he does not know the value of the transaction as of August 19, when a company acquired 95 percent of the shares of Avia Invest company. The sale took place under the condition that the state has no legal leverage to get involved or block such transactions. In this context, the minister said that the officials are preparing a draft law that would create a mechanism to block such actions and suspend them.

On 19 August, the NR Investments Ltd announced that it has acquired 95% of the shares of the company Avia Invest, which has under the contract the concession right for AIC.

The airport was granted a concession in 2013 for a period of 49 years.