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NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COMMODITY PRODUCERS CALLS TO PATRIOTISM
Infotag’s interview with the Chairman of the National Association of Commodity Producers, former Prime Minister of Moldova [2001-2008] Vasile Tarlev.
Question: The National Association of Commodity Producers (NACP) has announced its launching, from September, an all-republican action called “Buy the domestic!” What will it be like?
Answer: The Moldovan market has been flooded with foreign-made goods, many of which having very dubious quality. Nevertheless, they overwhelm Moldova-made goods and products, even when the latter’s quality is higher, and undermine demand for them. If we obtained things and services from domestic companies, they would have means for expanding production and creating new jobs for compatriots. On the other hand, when production grows, enterprises pay more taxes to the Budget, so the nation’s welfare improves as a whole. Therefore, we are not simply domestic producers – we are a locomotive of the country’s economic growth and an indicator of its economic health that tells on all of us.
Over many years, such patriotic initiatives were put forward in many countries, including in the United States and Russia, and they invariably brought about good results.
Before the end of this August, the NACP Bureau will convene for a session at which this strategy will be finally approved. We are going to organize producers’ meetings with consumers, conferences and presentations of new goods, contests of goods, opinion polls, business forums to discuss producers’ problems – all for improving the inter-relations between producers and consumers and for raising the manufacturers’ susceptibility to consumers’ opinions. And we will be attracting local governance organs, consumers’ associations and other non-governmental structures to these arrangements.
Q: Calls to patriotism are hardly worthwhile in market-economy conditions, aren’t they? People usually buy what is better, and in Moldova, with citizens’ modest incomes, – what is cheaper. How do you think domestic products meet these criteria?
A: Many Moldova-made goods have quality higher then their foreign-made analogs. Lately, our companies are attaching increasingly greater attention to their products’ appearance and packaging.
Q: Independent experts are saying that our companies are very hard to reform, that they do not invest in production modernization or in research, and are hard to broaden the assortment of products. They have no strict marketing strategies and, compared with other countries of this region, our companies are less competitive, not to mention European Union member countries. Could you comment please?
A: The experts are largely right. For instance, the proportion of energy cost in the cost of production in Moldova is remaining among the highest ones in Europe. Managerial teams at some enterprises keep on working old-style, they are not susceptible to market changes and stick to their ancient work habits and outlooks, waiting for somebody – government or God knows who – to come to solve their problems. In many instances, their mentality has been long outdated. That was exactly why I, when prime minister, managed to persuade the European Union to provide us with a regime of asymmetric trade for several first years. Really, it was clear that if only we had been given the regime of a free commodity exchange from the very beginning, Moldovan producers, insufficiently competitive as they were, would be immediately swallowed up, and would become slaves or, at best, hired labor for foreign countries that are incomparably more competitive than we are.
But we should not criticize only. Many company directors have realized that the situation has changed, and that there exists no alternative to changes. However, there exist objective factors, too. Many enterprises have no working capitals, or means for development, or cheap and long-term bank credits.
Q: When you started working as prime minister, there were many allegations, too, about the lack of cheap and long-term bank credits for business. Nearly 8 years has passed since then, and what, nothing has changed?
A: When I came to head the Government in 2001, interest rates on bank credits was 32-34% p.a., and in January 2008 – 18-19%, which is an obvious difference. At the present time, crediting conditions have worsened again for objective as well as subjective reasons. It is very hard to develop an efficient, internationally competitive business in conditions when credit rates are 20% and higher. But we do hope the coming of prominent banks to the Moldovan market will help us overcome this problem.
Q: In conclusion, could you tell more of the NACP, please? What is it like, and which projects is it going to realize in the near future?
A: The Association unites producers from all raions of Moldova. We have several branch offices in the localities, but are going to have such representations in all raions. Recently, a number of very essential collective members have joined the NACP – the Sugar Producers Association, the Truck Haulers Association, and other profiled organizations. Also, we have accepted producers from the Transnistrian region. The NACP has become a member of the International Producers’ Union that unites over 40 countries. We have completed negotiations and business presentations of Moldova at the International Congress of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, and we are currently in negotiations with the European Economic Forum on opening, through NACP, a Moldovan subdivision in it and on launching a number of international projects.
All our future projects are generally aimed at protecting our domestic producers by using various means, including through their participation in drafting bills, through training at various seminars and workshops on essential business topics etc. We are projecting to hold business forums this year, analogous to the one that was held with our partners from Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Romania, the Russian Federation, France, Belarus and other countries.
