● TUESDAY, November 1

New price ceilings for gasoline and diesel fuel

The National Agency for Energy Regulation announced the price ceilings for fuels for the next two weeks. Starting with November 2, the price ceiling per liter of gasoline will be lower, while per liter of diesel fuel will be higher. The price ceiling for a liter of gasoline coded 95 was set at 16.78 lei, by 0.6 lei less than two weeks ago. Diesel fuel will cost at most 14.76 lei a liter, as against 14.75 lei during the last two weeks.

Free Trade Agreement between Moldova and Turkey takes effect

The Free Trade Agreement between Moldova and Turkey came into force on November 1, 2016. Thus, Moldova and Turkey will eliminate 99.5% and, respectively, 100% of the taxes with commercial value. The agreement will offer unlimited access, without tariff restrictions, to the import of agricultural and industrial goods into Turkey and will lead to the elimination of customs duties. It will also enable to apply diagonal accumulation of origin (for industrial goods) within the PanEuroMed system. Minister of Economy Octavian Calmac said the signing of a free trade agreement with Turkey was a first experience for the Republic of Moldova. Bilateral talks on such agreements are to be opened soon with Egypt and China.

● WEDNESDAY, November 2

Legislative changes are needed to regulate public procurement, report

Parliament must modify the Law on Public Procurement, especially as regards the conflicts of interests of persons who prepare the public procurement procedures. Such a recommendation is contained in the third government procurement monitoring report presented by the Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance (AGER) and the Journalistic Investigations Center. Olesea Stamate, one of the authors of the report on behalf of AGER, said the Government decision on the documents that civil society must present to take part in the procedure for organizing public procurement should be modified so as to maximally simplify this process. According to Cornelia Cozonac, head of the Journalistic Investigations Center, the larger the acquisition is, the higher the number of identified violations is. “There are usually interests when they offer large amounts of money. During two years, we had investigated how the money within public procurement reaches the reserves of political parties. This year we cannot conduct such investigations because the authorities took measures to hamper access to such information. The workplace of the persons who donate money to parties is hachured in statements and we cannot make a connection between the public procurement and the donations made to parties,” said the journalist.

● THURSDAY, November 3

Ministry of Finance launches public consultations on institution of Fiscal Council

The Ministry of Finance has launched public consultations with civil society and the academic community on the creation of the Fiscal Council, which will be an independent institution that will monitor and assess the budgetary-fiscal policies and fiscal performance. Lithuania, Serbia and Slovakia have such councils and these work successfully there. “We will analyze the practices existing in these and other countries. We must assess the costs and human resources needed for instituting the Fiscal Council,” said Minister of Finance Octavian Armasu. Dumitru Budianski, programs director at the independent analytical center “Expert-Grup”, said that if such a Council is set up, this should be independent. “How will the ten experts who should be included in the Council chosen? Their remuneration should also not be neglected if we want the Fiscal Council’s appraisals to be credible and independent,” he stated.

● FRIDAY, November 4

Moldova and India develop bilateral cooperation

The Republic of Moldova and the Republic of India could establish new partnerships in such areas as textile and food industries, medicine and pharmacology, information technology and production of renewable energy. The issue was discussed in a meeting of Prime Minister Pavel Filip and Minister of Statistics and Program Implementation of India D.V. Sadananda Gowda. The interlocutors conferred on the prospects of developing the Moldovan-Indian cooperation. According to the Government’s press service, Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda said the executive of India wants the bilateral relations with the Republic of Moldova to develop and be of a higher quality and appreciated the fruitful cooperation between the two states within international organizations.

Owing to lack of biological material, breeding bees are smuggled into Moldova 

In Moldova, there are only two breeding apiaries and the biological material produced by these does not meet the internal demand. Beekeepers say they have to smuggle bees. On the other hand, representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture call on apiarists to submit attestation applications so that their apiaries become breeding ones. Head of the Beekeepers Association of Ialoveni Ion Maxim, in a roundtable meeting, said the two existing breeding apiaries do not produce enough species, while the homologation of the species is another problem. It is hard to prove that the species Carpatina (Apis Mellifera Carpatica), which is attested in Moldova, meets all the parameters. There are few specialists in the field and these are paid a salary of only 900 lei.

● SATURDAY, November 5

Indian businessmen to take part in pharmacology forum in Moldova 

More than 50 businesspeople from India confirmed their participation in the Business Forum on pharmacology that will take place in Chisinau at the end of November, Deputy Minister of Economy Valeriu Triboi announced after a meeting with Indian Minister of Statistics and Program Implementation Sadananda Gowda. According to the Ministry of Economy, Sadananda Gowda said the Indian authorities are interested in developing commercial and economic relations with the Republic of Moldova in all the spheres, especially the textile and food industries, medicines and pharmacology, information technology and production of renewable energy.

Apiarists urged to form associations to promote beekeeping 

While the apiarists warn about problems related to subsidization and certification, such as the lack of a dialogue inside the sector, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry calls on these to form representative associations that could submit proposals and solutions at national level given that there is only one beekeepers association and this is not very active owing to internal conflicts. In a roundtable meeting, beekeepers said that the bee honey producers with the status of legal entity in Moldova represent less than 10%, but this is required for being entitled to subsidies. An explanation is that most of the beekeepers are of an older age and are afraid to keep financial records and perform the procedures required of a legal entity. In this connection, Minister of Agriculture Eduard Grama said the subsidization regulations clearly provide that the subsidies are intended only for legal entities. In Moldova, these are varied and can be peasant farmsteads or limited liability companies. The established apiarists can also become legal entities if they form an association.