Moldova to extend the term of the IT Park activity until 2038 and its 7% single tax of turnover tax regime will be guaranteed until 2035.
This is stipulated by the relevant amendments to the Law on Information Technology Parks, passed by the Parliament in the first reading. The current wording of the law stipulates that the term of functioning of the IT Park is established by the government decree, but cannot exceed 10 years. The IT Park started its operation on January 1, 2018, and thus can only operate until December 31, 2027, but the government decided to extend this term for another 10 years, replacing "10 years" with "20 years" in the text of the law. In addition, an amendment was proposed according to which, if new laws are adopted that change the current rate of the single tax of 7% of turnover levied on residents of information technology parks and/or its composition and/or cancel this tax, park residents are entitled, up to and including 2035, to operate under the provisions of the laws in force before the date of entry into force of the new laws. And if certain taxes and/or fees included in the single tax levied on residents of information technology parks are replaced by legislation with other taxes and/or fees, the composition of the single tax shall be adjusted accordingly without changing its rate. Minister of Economic Development and Digitalization Dumitru Alaiba said that the relevant decision to extend the IT Park's term of operation until 2038 and to guarantee its tax regime with the preservation of the single tax of 7% of turnover until 2035 was taken to ensure predictability and a clear perspective for residents and potential investors in the field of information technology. A council will be set up to coordinate the work of the IT Park, which will include representatives of the government, the associative sector, park residents and development partners. In addition, the draft law envisages the expansion of the list of activities in the IT Park to which a preferential tax regime - a flat tax of 7% of turnover - will be applied, at the expense of intermediary services (e.g. telephone mediation, dispatching, customer support, human resources services) intended exclusively for export. In particular, the preferential tax regime will apply to the activities of telephone call centers (call centers), including those based on any technology/channel of communication with the client (contact center), exclusively for export; as well as to the activities of other human resources organizations, exclusively for export. The reason for these decisions was to provide legal employment opportunities and good pay to tens of thousands of people in Moldova, especially young people who know English (and other international languages), who would otherwise leave the country. Dumitru Alaiba said that if no bold decisions are taken now, the outflow of citizens abroad will continue. According to him, unlike IT, where employment opportunities are more limited (because the level of complexity is higher), the field of export business mediation has an even greater potential for employment of young people who will be able to work actively in the field of export services, and in the future may be trained and even end up in the IT industry. "Moldova can serve as an important source of multilingual support: a significant part of the population speaks two and often three languages, which makes it possible to provide foreign companies with high-quality services. Moldova's most important 'resource' is its people. This economic sector, in my opinion, can make the greatest contribution to the economic growth of our country in the coming years," said the Minister of Economic Development and Digitalization. Currently, Moldova IT Park has 1500 residents, 40% of which are companies founded by foreign investors from 38 countries. The IT sector in Moldova is 5% of Moldova's GDP; more than 20,000 employees, representing 3.3% of the labor force. The IT sector is expected to grow by 33% in 2023. Approximately 95% of Moldovan IT services are exported, amounting to 9.2 billion lei (11% of total exports). "IT is an area in which Moldova has a competitive advantage. We continue to work on becoming a country of startups. Now 20 thousand people work in the IT sector, creating 5% of GDP. Imagine what 100 thousand people can do. It will completely change our economy," said Dumitru Alaiba. According to him, in the sphere of BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) services - business process outsourcing it is quite realistic to create at least 10 thousand highly paid jobs in the next 3 years. "And since we already have very modern legislation on remote work, our companies can hire people from other countries for remote work without any problems. Including our people in the Diaspora who may not be ready to return yet, can work remotely for Moldovan companies. We have also canceled work permits for some foreign nationals so that they can work for our companies, including remotely. We are paving the way for something new in our economy," the Minister of Economic Development and Digitalization said. // 08.12.2023 – InfoMarket
