OREANDA-NEWS. October 08, 2013. Moldova must reconsider its marketing strategy and position itself as a country with a high-quality production, based on efficiency, said Deputy Prime Minister, Economics Minister Valeriu Lazar during a today’s roundtable on unveiling a pre-final variant of a roadmap for improving competitiveness, the Economics Ministry’s communication and media relations department has reported.

Valeriu Lazar said the roadmap represented a strategy of compliance with the realities of the period after joining the Agreement on Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) with the EU. This agreement will lead to profound changes in Moldovan society. "In the next 3-5 years, we will have to adopt more than 300 directives and European acts. In the medium and long term, these changes will bring undeniable benefits. Yet, in the short term, the greatest challenge resides in training institutions and enterprises to cope with the new realities", said the economics minister. However, Valeriu Lazar noted that structural reforms of this scope must be backed by structural funds from the European Union and other development partners.

The roadmap is focused on creating a friendly business environment. At the same time, it addresses issues the Economics Ministry deems to be of major importance for improving the competitiveness of Moldova, such as: human resources, access to finance, transport and energy infrastructure, quality infrastructure, information society, trade facilitation, fiscal policy and management, innovations and technology transfer, competition.

Among the constraints and problems identified in the roadmap, there are: the investment deficit caused by low efficiency of institutions and costs determined by the quality of public services provided to economic agents, the legal and regulatory framework, the availability and skills of the labour force etc. The document also focuses on policy interventions that could improve the short- and medium-term situation, targeting specific sectors and subsectors.

To overcome these constraints, the roadmap for improving competitiveness proposes a string of policy interventions, grouped in a matrix, and a list of about 300 EU legislation acts to be transposed for the implementation of the Association Agreement and the DCFTA. In order to implement the actions proposed by the Economics Ministry, a competitiveness council will be set up, that is to represent, on a parity basis, the public authorities and the business community.

The roadmap draft has been subjected to public debates for each sector of the economy, starting from 16 July 2013, and is to be proposed to the government for approval.