Enabling Environment for Sustainable Enterprises in Moldova

What has been done:

In 2013, the ILO assisted the National Confederation of Employers of the Republic of Moldova (CNPM) to conduct an EESE assessment. The consultations between government and the employers on the results of the assessment led to reforms simplifying the registration and licensing procedures, reducing the number of state inspections and control bodies, improving tax policies and administration, approving a new law on public procurement, making labour law more flexible and developing the legislative framework for dual training and apprenticeship.

As a follow up, the ILO Decent Work Team for Central and Eastern Europe and the Country Office for Moldova commissioned in 2018 - 2019 the “Enabling Environment for Sustainable Enterprises” assessment based on secondary data, a perception survey with enterprises and focus group discussions with members of the government, employers and workers. The report, together with its conclusions and recommendations, was validated during a tripartite workshop in Chisinau on 12 – 13 September 2019. This workshop was also the opportunity for participants from employers and workers organisation, as well as Ministries of Labour, Economy, Education, the Public Employment Services, the Bureau of Statistics and the SME Development Organisation to discuss action plans for implementing reforms in 3 areas, identified as priorities: enabling legal and regulatory environment; social dialogue; and education, training, lifelong learning. As a follow up to this workshop and the completion and publication of the report, a more thorough consultation process had to take place to refine and elaborate more in details the action plans on the priority areas and identify funding opportunities. This process was suspended as the COVID-19 pandemics disrupted the policy design process.

From its onset in 2020, COVID-19 pandemics has had a significant impact over the socio-economic situation in Moldova and studies have been done to complete the action plans taking into consideration the newly created context.

The Survey and its sample:

The updated assessment was launched in May 2018, and the survey sample consisted in 400 business owners and 107 workers. Survey respondents were spread across Moldova, with a majority of them in Chisinau Municipality (61%). In terms of sector, the sample focused on the manufacturing industry (37.5% of respondents) and services (23.3%). As for the size of the studied enterprises, the majority were micro (9 employees and less, 64.5% of respondents) or small (10 to 49 employees, 25.5% of respondents).

Results:

Good governance, social dialogue, and education, training and lifelong learning emerged as three key areas of concern. In particular, bribery and corruption were identified as major issues by 87.3% of respondents. Moreover, a majority of those surveyed identified the need for greater access to training, better education, and more support for business development in Moldova. Social dialogue also emerged as a key concern with 40% of enterprises respondents saying that they thought social dialogue was either little efficient or totally inefficient at national, sectoral and territorial levels.

The findings of the EESE assessment were disseminated to representatives from government and social partners and validated during a workshop in September 2019. At this workshop, tripartite participants agreed on priority areas for action and developed an action plan on (i) the enabling legal and regulatory environment; (ii) education, training and lifelong learning, and (iii) social dialogue, for a more enabling environment for sustainable enterprise development in Moldova.