Brussels, 22 May 2003
Interparliamentary Conference on New EU Policy for South Eastern Europe
The interparliamentary conference proposed a study into the possibility of
extending the Stabilisation and Association Process to Moldova.
MOLDOVA'S OIL
DEPOSITS ARE ESTIMATED AT 2-3 MILLION TONS
The government instructed Wednesday the competent bodies to create favourable
conditions for the further activity of the U.S. firm Redeco, which deals with
the exploration and extraction of natural gases and oil in southern Moldova.
Moldova's oil and gas resources are estimated at 2-3 million tons.
The cabinet particularly asked a commission monitoring the agreement with Redeco
to coordinate by February 1 the company's business plan, which should include
information about the gas reserves and a mechanism of distribution. The Finance
Ministry was told to exempt the company from the value-added tax.
Redeco general director Igor Oleinov has told the press that the market value of
the oil reserves amounts to an estimated 200 million dollars. In 2003, the
company plans to drill 12-13 new oil wells and to extend the extraction of gas
deposits.
In July 1995, Redeco was awarded the exclusive right to carry out a 20-year
prospecting programme for crude oil extracting in Valeni and a 10-year
prospecting programme for oil and gas deposits in the region.
According to data from the Environment Ministry, since 1997 and in the first
half of 2002, Redeco extracted from the area near Victorovca village 1,186,000
cubic metres of natural gases, at a total cost of 600,000 lei, and 500 tons of
crude oil. Over this period, the company invested 10.5 million dollars in its
work.
Earlier, many government officials had pleaded for withdrawal from the agreement
with Redeco, which was particularly attacked for failing to invest as much as 25
million dollars and to build small gas-powered stations to supply electricity to
the southern region.
BASA-press http://www.basa.md/
Referendum The Popular Christian Democrat Party led by Iurie Rosca has launched a
petition to request a referendum on the Republic of Moldova joining the EU and
NATO. According to electoral law this referendum would only be held if 200,000
signatures were obtained. The organisers think they can find 500,000 signatures.
This initiative aims to counterbalance the isolation policy led by the communist
government.
Appeal The Popular Christian Democrat Party of Moldova has launched an appeal
following the People's Assembly that has just been held in Chisinau "for the
international community to take dynamic steps that will contribute to the
democratisation of the Republic of Moldova and to the re-establishment of
Democracy in the country."
Poverty According to a GfK survey covering 38 European countries Moldava appears to
be one of the countries where incomes are the weakest with an average 223 euros
per year ie less than 1% of the average salary in Switzerland.
http://www.seeurope.net/en/Story.php?StoryID=31120&LangID=1
Moldova Investors Threaten
Withdrawal
CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) - A German bank with a minority stake in
Moldova's national airline threatened to cancel financing for the
airline after the government dismissed the company's manager.
Dresdner Bank, which holds a 49 percent stake in Air Moldova, said
the government's decision to fire the airline's manager, Petru
Ceban, was illegal.
The Civil Aviation Administration, a government agency that has a
51 percent stake in the airline, said Friday that Ceban had been
fired. The agency gave no reason for the move.
In an interview Sunday with private television Pro TV, Ulli
Breurer, a vice president of the bank, called the move illegal,
and said that the government needed permission from the bank to
replace the airline's top officials.
Breurer said the bank would cancel plans to finance a $37 million
contract to buy a pair of new planes for the airline unless the
government reconsidered its decision.
Moldova would also have to immediately reimburse the bank for two
outstanding loans - a $50 million loan for a state oil company and
a $12 million loan for a drug company, Breurer said.
Another bank - the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development - which had been negotiating a loan for the airline,
also threatened to reconsider its plans.
Hildegard Gacek, the bank's director for Moldova, sent a letter to
President Vladimir Voronin calling the government's action harmful
to the company and its investors.
``This interference endangers any participation of EBRD in the
airline,'' said the letter, which was made available to The
Associated Press.
Air Moldova was founded after the breakup of the Soviet Union in
1991, when it inherited a part of the former Soviet carrier
Aeroflot.
It is the biggest airline in Moldova, with a market share of about
64 percent of passengers.
A country of 4.5 million located between Romania and Ukraine,
Moldova is Europe's poorest country, with an average monthly
salary of just $30 a month.
The impoverished country owes $780 million to foreign banks, and
the government has sought to postpone payments by negotiating with
the lenders.
On the Net: http://www.ami.md/
During a press conference Petru Bobu, Chisinau's
public prosecutor indicated that the kidnapping of Vlad Cubreacovv
might have been ordered for political reasons. The kidnappers' aim
was to worsen the social and political situation in Moldavia.
http://www.azi.md/print/19440/En
Moldova launches tender for
51 pct of telecom firm
CHISINAU, June 3 (Reuters) - Moldova will sell a 51 percent stake
in national telecom monopoly Moldtelekom at an open international
tender in August, the government said on Monday.
Privatisation in Moldova, one of Europe's poorest countries, is
one of the major conditions required to unlock stalled loans from
the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
"The government commission headed by Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev
decided to announce an investment tender to sell 51 percent in
Moldtelekom," the government said in a statement.
The decision on the tender was taken on Saturday.
"The tender will take place from June 7 to August 9. Bids are
accepted until August 2," the statement said.
Moldova, where a post-Soviet Communist party is back in power,
desperately needs to secure frozen funds from the global lenders
to avoid a default on its foreign debts.
The government must meet $200 million in foreign debt servicing in
2002, including principal on $75 million of eurobonds this month.
Only telecom companies with at least one million customers and
assets worth $300 million and annual turnover of $150 million are
allowed to participate in the tender. Bidders should have
experience in telecoms sectors in emerging markets.
The government also plans to give Moldtelekom a third mobile
operator licence in the country. A final decision on the licence
will be made at a government meeting this month, it said.
Two operators -- Voxtel owned by France Telecom and Moldcell,
owned by Turkish Turkcell -- are working in Moldova, a country of
four million wedged between Ukraine and Romania.
Austria's bank Raiffeisen Investment AG is advising the government
on the sale.
It will be the second attempt to sell Moldtelekom, considered a
major attraction in the tiny country. The first sell-off attempt
fell through in 1997 because only one bid was placed -- by
Greece's telecom company OTE Telecom.
The Moldavan government would like the Ukrainian
authorities to suspend the introduction of new legislation on the
movement of foreigners until 1st January 2004. At present
Moldavians can go to the Ukraine with their ID card. According to
the new law a passport would be required. http://www.azi.md
During a press conference Petru Bobu, Chisinau's
public prosecutor indicated that the kidnapping of Vlad Cubreacovv
might have been ordered for political reasons. The kidnappers' aim
was to worsen the social and political situation in Moldavia.
http://www.azi.md/print/19440/En
Moldova launches tender for
51 pct of telecom firm CHISINAU, June 3 (Reuters) - Moldova will sell a 51 percent stake
in national telecom monopoly Moldtelekom at an open international
tender in August, the government said on Monday.
Privatisation in Moldova, one of Europe's poorest countries, is
one of the major conditions required to unlock stalled loans from
the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
"The government commission headed by Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev
decided to announce an investment tender to sell 51 percent in
Moldtelekom," the government said in a statement.
The decision on the tender was taken on Saturday.
"The tender will take place from June 7 to August 9. Bids are
accepted until August 2," the statement said.
Moldova, where a post-Soviet Communist party is back in power,
desperately needs to secure frozen funds from the global lenders
to avoid a default on its foreign debts.
The government must meet $200 million in foreign debt servicing in
2002, including principal on $75 million of eurobonds this month.
Only telecom companies with at least one million customers and
assets worth $300 million and annual turnover of $150 million are
allowed to participate in the tender. Bidders should have
experience in telecoms sectors in emerging markets.
The government also plans to give Moldtelekom a third mobile
operator licence in the country. A final decision on the licence
will be made at a government meeting this month, it said.
Two operators -- Voxtel owned by France Telecom and Moldcell,
owned by Turkish Turkcell -- are working in Moldova, a country of
four million wedged between Ukraine and Romania.
Austria's bank Raiffeisen Investment AG is advising the government
on the sale.
It will be the second attempt to sell Moldtelekom, considered a
major attraction in the tiny country. The first sell-off attempt
fell through in 1997 because only one bid was placed -- by
Greece's telecom company OTE Telecom.
The
Moldavan government would like the Ukrainian authorities to suspend the
introduction of new legislation on the movement of foreigners until 1st January
2004. At present Moldavians can go to the Ukraine with their ID card. According
to the new law a passport would be required. http://www.azi.md
Iran
Following an American decision to impose sanctions on
Moldavian companies accused of helping Iran to develop arms of mass destruction,
the Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev says he is waiting for the official
notification of this measure. "I do not think that Moldova's image will suffer
since international sanctions were violated by a private company and not by the
State."
Celebrations
President Vladimir Voronin has indicated that Russian
veterans living in Moldava today should be thought of as liberators and not as
occupants. At the end of a ceremony celebrating the end of the Second World War
two communist MP's, Victor Stepaniuc and Tatiana Necoara, gave red pioneer
scarves to a group of schoolchildren encouraging them the learn the "Moldavan
language" well and to speak it as well as Russian.
