A new code of conduct was signed on March 20 with a view to preventing sexual tourism and trafficking in children in Moldova. The signatories include operators from the hotel, tourism and ICT industries, Info-Prim Neo reports. The initiative was put forward by the International Center “La Strada” and is supported by the EU. The signatories pledged to obey a series of rules, including to pursue policies aimed at preventing the sexual exploitation of children and to train the personnel in accordance with them. The code of conduct was signed during the international conference “Promotion of child-friendly tourism and ICT in Moldova” that brought together operators of travel agencies, ICT companies and child protection NGOs. The participants are from different countries, including Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Poland, and Switzerland. Alexandru Besleaga, division head at the Ministry of the Interior’s Center for Combating Trafficking in Persons, has told Info-Prim Neo that this code is welcome because the economic entities most of the times promote their own interests and ignore the fact that some of the traffickers profit from their services. The conferences and the code of conduct will inform and sensitize the signatory economic entities and will make them more attentive to what’s going on in their companies. The code of conduct was designed by the model of the similar Ukrainian code. Foreign experts who have such documents in their countries said the social effects of such a code are very positive.