Activity of the Government on February 15–28, 2011

Events of major importance

The situation of “Moldtelecom” JSC

Starting with March 1, 2011, “Moldtelecom” JSC, the national telecommunications operator, was to implement the new tariffs for fixed line subscriptions and services, which were announced as “rebalanced” in accordance with older plans and commitments of Moldovan authorities to international partners. The Management of “Moldtelecom” JSC has justified the change of tariffs by economic needs, in the situation when the costs of maintenance for internal telephone lines are covered by exaggerated prices on international telephony. Prime Minister Vlad Filat assessed the changes made as unjustified increase in tariffs for fixed telephony, which causes dissatisfaction of population, against the background of other price increases. Prime Minister requested to stop arbitrary actions of reviewing the tariffs for fixed telephony services. In order to enforce the Prime Minister’s order, a special meeting was summoned by the Deputy Prime Minister Valeriu Lazar together with representatives of the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Informational Technology (ANRCETI), the National Agency for the Protection of Competition (ANPC), the Board members and leadership of “Moldtelecom” JSC. These discussions did not result in any decision and the situation continued to cause dissatisfaction of the Government leadership, but also of the Speaker of Parliament, who convened in a meeting the leaders of agencies under parliamentary control and urged the application of urgent measures to stop the unjustified increases of prices. Subsequently, through a special prescription, ANPC has decided to suspend the tariff adjustment process of Moldtelecom until the completion of verifying its legality. ANPC decision was motivated by “public resonance, the events of recent days, contradictory discussions on the issues between the Government members and following extraordinary meeting with the Interim President…” ANRCETI announced that in a few months the procedure will complete of designating Moldtelecom as a provider with significant power on the market providing the end users with access to a fixed public telephony network, after which it will examine and approve in consultation with the Government the tariffs for fixed telephony services provided by this provider to individual end-users.

Appointments. Dismissals

Anatol Onceanu is appointed Deputy Secretary General of Government
Victor Tutuc was dismissed from position of the Head of General Inspectorate of Sanitary Supervision and Control of Seeds, and Ghenadie Onceanu was appointed in that position.

Decisions

Decisions for approval of plans, policy documents:

The National Plan for implementation of Moldova — EU Action Plan on visa regime liberalization;
Governmental Action Plan for the period 2011–2014.

The decision to approve the draft law on preventing and combating discrimination. The law’s purpose is to prevent and combat discrimination, ensure equal opportunities or treatment to all persons in the Republic of Moldova in the political, economic, social, cultural and other spheres of life regardless of race, colour, nationality, ethnic origin, language, religion or religious belief, sex, age, health condition, disability, sexual orientation, opinion, political affiliation, wealth, social origin and based of any other similar criteria. The law shall regulate the severe forms of discrimination; ways of eliminating discrimination; situations that are not considered to be discriminatory; subjects with competences in preventing and combating discrimination; the victim’s right to protection; the burden of proof, etc.

Decision on aspects concerning the allocation of annual net profit of joint stock companies with state participation share and of state enterprises. According to the document approved by the Government, ministries and other central administrative authorities shall forward, until 10 January next to the administrated year, to the boards of joint stock companies with state share a request regarding the inclusion on the agenda of the General Assembly of shareholders the issue concerning the distribution of company’s net profit for the administrated year and the approval of regulations for allocation of net profit for the next year, and will also promote: — a maximum possible number of state members in the board of joint stock companies with state share; — at the general assembly of shareholders to adopt the decision on distribution, for dividend payments, a part of net profit gained in a proportion not less than 50 percent of its total value; — to adopt decisions on the breakdown into budget a part of the net profit achieved in the proportion of not less than 50 percent of its total value. State-owned enterprises will transfer into the state budget, by July 1 of the next to administrated year, the net profit determined by the administrative board of the state company concerned.

Meetings. Decisions

Supervisory Board of the Millennium Challenge Account Moldova

Prime Minister Vlad Filat chaired the meeting which approved the action plan for implementing the Compact Program in 2011. Under the plan, activities will be conducted this year under the Road Rehabilitation Project and the transition to agriculture project performance and monitoring and evaluation activities of the Compact Program. Prime Minister mentioned the importance to comply with the terms established in the Action Plan for implementing the “Compact” Program in Moldova, to monitor all activities and evaluate the impact of implementing the Programme.

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