Moldovan PM participates in Capital Bridges Forum 2022 in Bucharest

Chisinau, 13 September /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita participated in the Moldova-Romania: Capital Bridges 2022 forum, along with her Romanian counterpart Nicolae Ciuca, in Bucharest today. The event on the promotion of the capital markets from the two banks of Prut brought together governmental officials from both countries, representatives of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), World Bank and European Investment Bank (EIB), the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.   
At the forum’s inauguration, Natalia Gavrilita stressed that Moldova was open for all those willing to explore the business opportunities from the country and the Moldovan government remained fully committed to ensuring a sustainable partnership between the public sector and the private one, in order to back the business environment, attract investments and for Moldova’s social and economic development.   
„The state’s role is to facilitate the economic activity; therefore, we focus on the improvement of the investment climate and the legal framework and we are interested, in this respect, in your proposals. The today’s event is about the building of bridges – bridges between my country and foreign investors, between the Moldovan and international businesses, the Moldovan capital markets the Romanian capital markets and the key capital markets from Europe and not only. Ever since the taking over of the mandate, the construction of these bridges has been a priority of the government,’’ Natalia Gavrilita said.    
At the same time, the prime minister noted that the basic goal remained Moldova’s integration into EU and the country has irreversibly made the choice to be member of the free world. ‘’The most important bridge which we have managed to edify is the new level of our relation with EU, after we received the status of candidate. Being elected to reestablish the rule of law state, to encourage the economic development and open the way towards prosperity, we deem the European integration as the compass which will help us fulfill these expectations of our citizens and of the companies which are doing business in Moldova,’’ Natalia Gavrilita specified.     
The PM emphasized that the agenda of transformation was solid and the authorities were making efforts to further simplify the taxation system, reduce the bureaucracy and speed up the digital transformation. Also, according to the prime minister, despite the crises triggered by the war in Ukraine, of the interrupted supply chains, inflation and uncertainly dealing with the energy security, Moldova has a solid macroeconomic base – the labour market reflect positive tendencies, which show a decrease of the public debt and in 2021, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by 13.9 per cent, more than in any country of Europe.   
The Moldovan PM also referred to the banking sector from Moldova, the opportunities emerged in such sectors as IT, electronic trade and automotive industry. At the same time, the prime minister stressed that the authorities stayed focused on the development of the domestic capital market, launch of new financial instruments and facilitating the access to the international financial markets. In the context, Gavrilita highlighted the importance of the support and expertise of the Stock Exchange from Bucharest and of the Romanian Financial Supervisory Authority. ‘’We need a more active capital market and international investments and we would like to learn from our Romanian partners. The capital market from Romania is as a gate for the access of Moldovan business to financings through shares and bonds and the Stock Exchange clearly proved its potential to become a regional financial hub, including for the Moldovan companies which look for increasing capital,’’ Natalia Gavrilita said.       
In the end, the Moldovan prime minister said that, taking into account the small domestic market, emphasis was put on the edification of an open, innovating economy, which will also serve as platform of export for investors. ‘’We know that, for some companies, the Moldovan market is maybe too small to justify an investment. Yet, when you intend to opt for Moldova, think at it not only as at a market of less than 3 million people, but rather as at a point of access to a combined market of more than 20 million of potential clients,’’ the prime minister said.     
For his part, Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ionel Ciuca touched upon the opportunities of well-being for the Moldovan citizens, provided by the status of country candidate to EU. He gave assurances that Moldova would further receive every needed support on behalf of Romania, in order to fulfill its commitments to EU.   
„We share the strong cultural and spiritual values, but we can and we must do more to develop the relations between us. The present geopolitical and economic context is full of challenges and causes real problems to the business environment; therefore, we should find viable solutions, strengthen the cooperation relations between the capital markets. We are also ready to support the firms which seek access to financings at exchanges and the success of the Stock Exchange can be shared, in order to build efficient capital bridges between the two economies. We want to contribute in continuation to Moldova’s economic development.’’ the Romanian PM added.    
Photo: Government