We are used to seeing annual growth of investments, but we have no investment disaster - the total volume of foreign investments exceeded $5.5 billion euros - Natalia Bejan
The head of the Moldovan Investment Agency said at the Economic Press Club meeting that the volume of attracted foreign investments differs from year to year. For instance, in 2021, the FDI amounted to $410 million, in 2022 it increased to $586.4 million, and in 2023 it decreased again. She noted that the war in the neighboring country, lack of skilled labor and the energy crisis have affected investment attractiveness. Nevertheless, she said, Moldova has not had a single year of foreign investment decline in the last ten years, just that everyone is used to seeing annual growth. “We have no investment disaster. Some companies are leaving, but new investors are also coming. Far fewer investors left Moldova in 2023 than in 2022, and now we are at a historical maximum in terms of the total inflow of foreign investments, which is about 5.5 billion euros in total,” Natalia Bejan said. At the same time, she emphasized that over the last 3 years, about 80% of foreign direct capital is reinvestment. “This shows that investors make money in Moldova - they get profit here and choose to reinvest it. Half of the 2024 investors have already worked in Moldova, but continued to invest in our economy. Foreign business feels confident here, despite the territorial proximity of the war and the uncertainty in the terms of its completion,” she said. At the same time, the head of the Investment Agency said that great hopes to increase Moldova's investment attractiveness are put on new instruments of investors' support. The first is the investment guarantee fund, which has been functioning for a long time in international financial institutions, but it costs a certain amount of money - about 1%. According to Natalia Bejan, Moldova is developing a mechanism that will cover 100% of investments and will be very cheap or free of charge. The second mechanism is the mechanism of state assistance in the industrial sector, namely, support for investments of more than 10 million lei in 6 industrial sectors - pharmaceutical, chemical, clothing and textile, machinery and automobile components. The state will reimburse large and small enterprises under this mechanism up to 60% of investments in business development and expansion, of which 25% will be a grant, the remaining 75% of the refunded amount will be provided in the form of tax vacations for 10 years. “With an investment of 10 million euros, the company will receive about 6% million euros of compensation, this is a huge support, and we expect that companies will respond positively to this support,” emphasized the head of the agency. The head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Moldova (Amcham Moldova), Alexandru Gozun, said that foreign investors maintain a positive perception of Moldova as a country for investments. According to him, a survey carried out a year ago among the members of the association showed that the companies maintain a moderate optimism, and although the overall assessment is not quite good, at the business level, the companies are developing in the right direction. He also noted that investors do not treat the energy instability as a signal to exit the market, but as a need to discuss how to prepare for it. While commenting on the 2 mechanisms proposed by the authorities to support investors, Alexandru Gozun said that it is premature to give any assessment. “Such tools are not developed in a month, and it will take at least six months. We also need time to understand what the perception of such support will be and whether there will be demand for it, as well as we need to assess how it will affect the investment attractiveness in general,” emphasized the head of Amcham Moldova. // 27.12.2024 - InfoMarket.
