OREANDA-NEWS. January 13, 2010. The wooing of strategic investments to the national economy, including direct foreign ones, especially to the sectors with a high potential of competitiveness and export-oriented ones, including by developing related infrastructure (industrial parks, free economic zones, etc./, is one of the priorities established by the Economics Ministry for 2010.

Deputy Prime Minister, Economics Minister Valeriu Lazar made a statement to this effect at a today's news conference.

The deputy prime minister named other priorities too, such as: the launch of the process of negotiating a new regime with the European Union by eventually signing an agreement on comprehensive and deep trade, development of the legislative framework in the field of consumers' protection and market's supervision, adjusted to the EU legislation, enhancing the energy efficiency and use of re-generable resources, including the creation and consolidation of the capacities of the Agency for Energy Efficiency and Fund for Energy Efficiency, etc.

Valeriu lazar also emphasized the improvement of the system of regulating the entrepreneurial activity, developing schemes of guaranteeing credits for small- and medium-sized enterprises (IMMs), promoting IMMs to give new opportunities, and ensure a higher ability of the economic system's adaptation to the present requirements of the market economy, etc.

Referring to the achievements got by the Economics Ministry in 2009, the deputy prime minister said that the elaboration of a 2009-2011 programme on stabilisation and economic re-launch of Moldova was among the first initiatives of the new government in the economic area. Lazar said that the instruments used to improve the national economy fields contain both universally accepted measures and reform-oriented ones, which are crucial in the current conditions.

On the same period, the ministry elaborated an action plan on removing the administrative restrictions in the business environment. Valeriu Lazar said that the plan's implementation will foster the elimination of obstacles to doing business, demonopolisation of the import and export, implementation of contemporary technologies for financial and statistic reporting.

The first Business Incubator, inaugurated in Soroca, northern Moldova, was put into operation on 17 December 2009 to develop the IMMs' sector. In September-December 2009, 28 business projects with grant portion for young people were financed. The credits amounted to 8.46 million lei, the sum of the grant portion was 3.37 million lei and the interest rate - 8.7 per cent.

Valeriu Lazar also said that, in January-November 2009, the Economics Ministry issued 2,820 export authorizations, offered on behalf of EU within the Autonomous Trade Preferences' regime. In this respect, Moldovan exporters fully used the export shares for wine, wheat and sugar at a level of 88.77 per cent, for maize - 98.5 per cent and barley - 87.1 per cent, the economics minister said.