18 October 2021 – MPs have voted in first reading on legislative amendments obliging authorities to release documents in electronic format.

Today, economic agents and individuals, although they have the right under the law on electronic signature and electronic document not to physically come to state institutions to pick up or submit requested paper documents, this still takes place. As a solution, the draft law, voted by MPs, foresees obliging public authorities to use electronic signatures and electronic documents in these processes, in parallel with the traditional method, for those who are not technologically ready.

Unconditional acceptance of electronic documents and signatures is extremely important in the context of the challenges posed by the pandemic. The issue was brought to the attention of MPs after the Moldovan business community alerted the Economic Council to the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Economy to the need to remove these impediments.

This and other topics related to the digitisation of G2B relations were included in the Roadmap for boosting the digitisation of the national economy and the development of e-commerce, drawn up by the two entities.

Subsequently, national and international experts from the EBRD, GIZ Moldova, USAID (Structural Reforms Programme in Moldova) and IFC, at the request of the Ministry of Economy, within the platform of the Economic Council to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, drafted the legislative amendments, approved today by the Parliament in the first reading, which are part of the first legislative package for the digitization of the economy.

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.