National Bank of Moldova (NBM) governor, Anca Dragu, stated in an interview for Agerpres that the Republic of Moldova has become one of the favorite destinations of foreign investors, in the context of joining the EU. “Those who don’t invest in Moldova now will regret it in five – ten years’ time”, says Anca Dragu.
Anca Dragu, former minister of Finances in Romania, was appointed governor of the NBM in December, 2023, and is one of many professionals holding important positions within institutions in Chișinău.
Energy and IT are the most attractive fields for companies interested in expanding to the Republic of Moldova, according to the NBM governor.
For this year, Chișinău estimates an economic increase in actual terms of the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) of 3 – 3.5%, and an inflation under 5%. In February, inflation reached 4.3%, compared with 34% in October of 2022, for example, explains Anca Dragu.
Positive prospects for Moldova’s economy
The constant evolution of economic parameters and the prospect of joining the EU increased the attractiveness of Moldova:
“Economic growth and macro-economic coordinates, macro-economic variables, offer perspective and very good investment conditions in the Republic of Moldova. Moreover, this new prospect of starting negotiations for the accession to the European Union places us and should place us in the top of investors’ preferences. I keep saying that those who don’t invest in Moldova now will regret it in five to ten years from now”, states Anca Dragu.
The proximity of the war should not prevent investors from looking to the Republic of Moldova”, explains NBM governor, “ for several reasons”, adds Anca Dragu. “We know very well that security issues are a problem for many states in the region”.
“Yes, we are on the border of this war, but I also believe there are conditions that ensure the security of investments, to the extent that this is possible given the general context. And I also believe that a slightly higher level of risk provides a higher level of investment attractiveness and profitability. This is the game of investments.”
Areas with important investment opportunities
IT is the main area open to investments, believes the NBM governor, Moldova presenting many advantages in this respect:
“I think the main field is in IT and digitalization, because the Republic of Moldova is already very advanced in this way. I tell you, I don’t sign anything on paper at the National Bank. Everything is sent via e-mail, everything comes with an electronic signature, and this trend, this tendency towards digitalization is visible at the level of administration. So this field is clearly a very very attreactive one. There is know-how, as well as appetence for this field. We want to see performance in the field of digitalization”, says the head of NBM.
Other areas with great opportunities for investors:
“There is then the field of energy, investments in energy, in green energy, in energy grids, transport and distribution of electric energy, gas. These too require investments. Green energy needs significant network consolidation, so this an area for which an interesting investments package can be constituted. I’m speaking about services generally and I would also say that we must consider the Republic of Moldova a bridgehead for investments in reconstructing Ukraine”, added Anca Dragu.
On the collaboration with NBR
- “I have a very good relationship with the National Bank of Romania. We have some NBR experts in Chişinău today (e.n. – Tuesday) actually because we are holding a ceremony for the completion of a partnership, a twinning process which sought the growth of governance on the financial and banking market, as well as on the non-banking market ultimately. This was a program supported by the European Union and the European Commission, attended by five institutions from the member states, as well as the NBR and FSA (e.n. – Financial Supervision Authority) from Romania. There have been a series of projects within this twinning for almost three years, but we must state very clearly that both formally and informally, the main bank or institution in this project was the NBR.”
“We also have a high representative from the European Union, also coming from the NBR, and this collaboration will continue. The National Bank of Moldova has a very important chapter among the negotiation chapters. There are 35 chapters under negotiation and we play an important part in three of these, being involved in a total of ten, but a difficult one concerns opening the capital account. This was already done in Romania in 2005-2006 and we would particularly like to have the support of Romania on this issue. It is the country that has some coordinates and market elements similar to the market in Moldova and the experience of the colleagues from NBR would prove very helpful. And yes, I hope we will have even more experts at the NBM”.
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