Prime Minister Ion Chicu today participated in a plenary meeting of the Economic Council to the Prime Minister, held online. In the beginning of the meeting, the PM said that we were experiencing unprecedented times. ‘’One hundred years ago, the mankind went through a tough epidemic; yet, at that time, the people were not so mobile, the tourism and the HoReCa industry, which employs, in chain, tens of thousands of people in Moldova, was not so developed. In general, the quota of services in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was small. The pandemic hit the producers of services and non-essential products. In Moldova, tens of thousands of jobs are in danger and in the world – hundreds of millions,’’ Ion Chicu said. The prime minister referred to the evolution of the economic indexes till the beginning of the epidemic and after the restrictions were imposed, as well as to the prospects of the national economy on the period 2020-2021, in the context of the changes triggered by the pandemic. The government is expecting diminution of the consumption and investments by 15.4 billion lei in the second quarter of this year and by 27.8 billion lei – during the entire 2020 year. The GDP is to decrease by two per cent in EU and the global GDP will drop by three per cent. According to the German Economic Team, the GDP of Moldova will decrease by 6.3 percent in 2020 against 2019. The participants in the meeting discussed the reasoning to back the production of personal protection equipment (PPE) in Moldova. The government is willing to provide support to the industry, which can supply Moldova’s market with PPE, according to the international standards and after meeting the domestic needs, to be able to export PPE. The participants in the meeting also tackled the subject of gradual lift o the restrictions and preparation for resuming the economic activities in safe conditions. The authorities work with associations on elaborating procedures of activity on the period of emergency state in the health sector. Proposals are made to make amendments to the Labour Code, in order to allow preserving jobs and preventing massive redundancies. The prime minister touched upon the government’s focusing on the digitization of public services, noting that work was carried out in the health and education sectors. Regulations are under elaboration and investments will be made in technical capacities and information systems both from public sources and from assistance of development partners. Ion Chicu informed that the government would focus on the payment of salaries in time in all public sectors, as well as on the payment of pensions and allowances. The state’s functionality will be preserved and a decisive contribution to maintaining consumption will be made through the payment of salaries, pensions and allowances. The PM assured the business environment that the government would not resort to increasing taxes and would provide predictable conditions of work.

The Secretariat of the Economic Council to the Prime Minister is supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, funded by the UK Government’s Good Governance Fund.