Activity of the Government on November 17–30, 2003

Decisions

Government decided to comply to President’s initiative to cut down the prices on the most popular types of bread to the level before November 15. There was a strong pressure to reduce the price, albeit the 65.7% growth in the grain prices over June-October 2003 on the markets Moldova imports it from, as reported by the Statistics and Sociology Department. At the same time the Government decided to decrease the sales margin from 20% to 10% for “Franzeluta” products until the next harvest, which in Premier Tarlev’s opinion would enable the main producer to drop the prices to the level before November 15.

According to Victor Cojocaru, Director General of “Franzeluta”, Government’s decision to decrease the sales margin would not bring loses to his company, but rather to the stores selling its products.

In this respects a number of analysts criticised Government intention to regulate the prices on bread, claiming that it should have identified instead some compensatory resources to cover for the additional losses consumers incur. On the other hand, some of the most meticulous business analysts pointed to the fact that the shift in bread price bears a political connotation bringing additional political dividends to President Voronin who called for reducing bread prices.

On November 19, at the initiative of the Information Technology Department Government approved a string of amendments, thereby: citizens born in the Republic of Moldova, but residing abroad, shall be able to apply for Moldovan citizenship based on simplified procedure; children under 16 shall be entitled to have their own passports; Moldovan citizens shall be obliged to declare all the citizenships they hold. During the same session Government decided to establish a national commission to assess the possibility of exempting citizens who apply for the first time for an ID from the state tax, as well as reducing the price for its processing for certain categories of citizens.

On the same day, another document was approved, namely the draft law on the completion of Article 24 of the Law no. 64-XII on Government, thereby a Trade Department is to be established within the Government. The new Department will: monitor and contribute to trade development; work out and enforce measures to eliminate obstacles in the business activity; regulate the control over all the aspects of business; protect consumers’ rights; co-ordinate trade infrastructure deployment in rayons, etc. Moreover, one of the prerogatives of the said Department shall be tariff and non-tariff regulation on the market.

After Papauti village and Rezina Rayon Council refused to store on its territory the stock of unused pesticides from the entire country, Government decided that all Chairs of rayons, Gagauz-Yeri authorities and heads of the municipalities in possession of such stocks should arrange for a warehouse for the pesticides storage. This ruling obliges local public authorities to ensure together with the Defence Minister and Department for Exceptional Situations the repackaging, transportation and storage of the pesticides until their liquidation, which is to be done with NATO financial support.

Government granted additional powers to the Ministry of Labour to sign a Bilateral Co-operation Agreement with its Ukrainian counterpart in the field of labour and social security. The move stems from the “bilateral relations among CIS member states and the perspective of establishing a single economic area and a common labour market”. Undoubtedly the agreement would have some positive impact, however the interesting thing is that Moldovan Government ties it to the “perspective of establishing a single economic area” in CIS. Needless to say, the latter compromised itself as President Voronin put it at the Yalta Summit when Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine had established the Single Economic Area.

Government also granted additional powers to Ministry of Energy to sign an Agreement on Energy II Project with International Development Agency, part of the World Bank, worth $35 million USD.

Poverty Reduction and Economic Growth Strategy

On November 27, Inter-ministerial Committee for Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction approved the Poverty Reduction Strategy, which is to be finalised by February 2004. By that time the PRSP itself as well as another 18 sector strategies are to be subject to public debates.

e-democracy.md

Activity of the Government on November 17–30, 2003

Decisions

Poverty Reduction and Economic Growth Strategy

Archive