Deputy Prime Minister Dumitru Alaiba met with Moldovan entrepreneurs to learn directly from them the main obstacles to the development of e-commerce in the country. The discussions were organised by the Ministry of Economic Development and Digitisation and the Economic Council to the Prime Minister. Among the problems the entrepreneurs list are logistics and excessive red tape. There are many processes behind an internet purchase.

Among them – poor eCommerce infrastructure and cumbersome interaction with customs and tax authorities. Entrepreneurs also argue that eCommerce in Moldova is still very bureaucratic, the rules have evolved little, they were developed when eCommerce did not yet exist. Participating in the discussions, the DHL representative in Moldova mentioned that even today state institutions still ask from the e-commerce operator: “Paperwork, stamps, come on, make three copies, scanned we do not accept, 3 originals, make a map…”.

All this happens, in the businessman’s view, because there is no thought to the end when drafting the regulations under which entrepreneurs operate.   Another problem, businessmen say, is the existing Customs Code, which dates back to 2000. According to entrepreneurs, when the current code was being drafted, e-commerce did not exist even in developed countries. In response, Minister of Economic Development and Digitisation Dumitru Alaiba said that the new Customs Code will enter into force as soon as possible. As for requests from state institutions regarding the presence of stamps or documents that no longer need to be requested, the minister asked entrepreneurs for concrete proposals on procedures that can be excluded.

The need to develop an e-commerce ecosystem in the internal market was also discussed. This implies the development of marketplaces that would help Moldovan entrepreneurs who want to do e-commerce or want to export online and would relieve them from a number of collateral problems, the solution of which is only on the power of large companies, such as warehouse infrastructure (eFulfilment), integration of online payment tools (ePayments), courier services (eDelivery), simple export and tax procedures, etc.

At the end of the discussions Minister Alaiba mentioned that in order to improve e-Commerce in Moldova, with the support of the Economic Council, a legislative package has already been drafted and voted by the Parliament in March this year, which has already entered into force, and a new set of legislative amendments could be developed by the end of this year.

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.