OREANDA-NEWS. April 29, 2013. Moldovan Investment and Export Promotion Organisation (MIEPO) and the Hungarian Investment and Trade Agency (HITA) have signed a cooperation agreement meant to promote bilateral investments by organizing business missions and economic forums, as well as by supporting both countries entrepreneurs’ participation in exhibitions and fairs, carried out in Moldova and Hungary.

The agreement was signed within the first meeting of the Moldovan-Hungarian Intergovernmental Commission for economic cooperation, which took place on 23-24 April in Budapest.

According to the Economics Ministry?s information and press relations service, the Moldovan-Hungarian Intergovernmental Commission ended its works today by signing a protocol on the inauguration of the Commission. The protocol was signed by the co-chairmen of the commission, Deputy Economics Minister Octavian Calmic and State Secretary for International Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations of Hungary Peter Szijjarto. The document provides for a string of cooperation actions in the fields of business development, agriculture, small and middle-sized enterprises, energetics, environment protection and tourism, designed to boost the Moldovan-Hungarian trade and economic relations.

“The discussions held within the commission have confirmed the Hungarian economic agents? interest in participating in the privatisation process of the Moldovan state enterprises, which is presently carried out and which offers good possibilities for the Hungarian investors and Moldova?s free exchange agreements represent highly advantageous trade regimes for the setting of Moldovan-Hungarian joint companies, “Calmic said at the official signing of the protocol.

For his part, Peter Szijjarto said that “among the multiple goals of the Hungarian economy, the main ones are the maintenance of the macroeconomic stability and the re-launching of its growth, hence being reasoned the launching of “the Eastern opening” policy, streamlined to consolidate and extend bilateral economic relations with the Eastern Europe countries, Moldova having a priority status”.

In the context, the Hungarian side informed about the fact that the Eximbank Hungarian commercial bank was preparing to extend its financial services for the companies, which export goods to Moldova and to establish direct relations with the Moldovan commercial banks, in order to offer financial instruments to Moldovan importers and enterprises by creating import-credit interbank accounts.

Calmic said that it was important for Moldovan farmers to overtake the Hungarian experience accumulated in the area of agricultural and rural development within the EU. In the context, Moldova informed about its intention of launching the dialogue with the EU as regards the access of funds of the European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD). It will allow establishing cooperation ties with the EU countries, including Hungary, as regards agriculture and food industry development in Moldova by transferring competitive technologies and equipment in the cultivation and processing of cereals, fruits, products of animal origin and also by creating and developing irrigation systems.

The Commission also laid the basis for signing, in the near future, a memorandum of understanding between the Moldovan Environment Ministry and the Hungarian Ministry of Rural Development to cooperate in the environment protection sector. The memorandum?s goal is to back the following actions: the reconstruction of the wastewater treatment plant from Chisinau, the planning and construction of waste depots, the carrying out of environmental audit, the rehabilitation of contaminated soil and underground waters, the waste recycling and the use of biomass in electricity producing.

Another important topic of discussion approached by the commission was the renewable energy sector, including aspects related to the use of biomass. In the context, the Hungarian side expressed confidence that the Moldovan energy sector would benefit from the European Union Programme on energy priorities within the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, the final goal of which was to reduce energy dependence. For its part, the Moldovan side informed about its already undertaken actions as regards the use of biomass potential and the participation in the EU Strategy for the Danube Region will ensure the extension of bilateral cooperation in the sector of energy efficiency, the application of up-to-date technologies of reduced energy consumption, heat generating, etc.