BUSINESS WEEK SUCCESS WILL ALLOW DEVELOPING RELATIONS WITH EAST AND WEST - DEPUTY MINISTER OF ECONOMY

Deputy Minister of Economy and Infrastructure Vitalie Iurcu said at the Wednesday's briefing that the forum Moldova Business Week 2017 created a wide platform for dialog between the government and potential foreign and domestic investors.

"Many foreigners came to the forum just out of curiosity, but were pleasantly surprised with advantages of investing into Moldovan economy, as Moldova has free trade zone agreements both with the CIS and with the European Union. Besides, the Ministry is holding negotiations on creating such zones with China and Egypt", Iurcu said.

According to him, within the forum, Italian experts shared experience on doing business in regions, which is very important for Moldova in conditions of decentralization. Also, with participation of Moldova Technical University the program of developing the system of technical education was prepared, aimed at training a new generation of Moldovan engineers and industrial growth, which will allow transforming the republic from a traditionally agricultural country into an industrial state.

Director of the Moldovan Investment and Export Promotion Organization (MIEPO) Vitalie Zaharia said that the forum results exceeded all expectations.

"During the forum, preliminary contracts were concluded in the field of exporting textiles to Italy, footwear to France and Germany. Two large Italian companies stated about their readiness to invest in agriculture - for cultivating grain and corn (over 1 million euros) and metal and steel processing (over 500 thousand euros). Another Italian company expressed interest to opening production of light-emitting diodes in one of Moldova's free economic zones", he said.

He also said that the complete information about the results of the Moldova Business Week 2017 forum will appear within two weeks.