INVESTMENT IN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY WILL EXCEED US$500 MILLION BY END OF YEAR - PREMIER FILIP

The aggregate investment in the Moldovan car-building industry has already reached US$430 million, and by the end of this year it will exceed US$500 million, maintains Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip.

Speaking on Tuesday at the opening of the Moldova Automotive Days 2018 international forum in Chisinau, Filip said that the share of industry in the country's GDP accounts for 15%, so the car industry development may well lead to revision of the country's economic model.

"I want to change the current economic model because we must abandon old economic practices and must come to be based on the importation of investment and on exports of finished products. In 2017, our industrial output grew 43%, and exports - 37%. And since the beginning of 2018, the exports of industrial products have already grown by over 50%", said the Premier. Pavel Filip said that in 2017, the Moldovan machine-building sector employed nearly 15 thousand workers. This year, the figure has grown to 15 thousand, and according to the Government's estimates, by the end of 2018 the employment indicator should reach 20 thousand workers.

The Premier stressed the importance of changing the approach to training of profiled specialists and the need to widely use dual education implying the combination of classical disciplines in educational institutions with concrete practice at industry enterprises.

The Moldova Automotive Days 2018 has been organized by the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure and by the Moldovan Investment and Export Promotion Organization (MIEPO). It is expected that on May 29 and 30 it will be visited by over 250 profiled specialists and industry managers, of whom 80 are potential investors.

The Days activities are divided into panels that are holding concrete dialogs with the most important international players in the automobile building industry. They are negotiating partnership relations with local suppliers, incentives for investment and exports, the development of local labor potential etc.

On Tuesday, the participants are discussing the sector development, entrepreneurship climate, education, and trends in the Moldovan car-building industry.

And on Wednesday, the program of "The Day of Japan" includes the opening of a Mitutoyo Laboratory, discussions between business representatives with the participation of seven Japanese companies, and a familiarization trip to the Sumitomo Electric Bordnetze plant in Orhei town.