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The most relevant business events in Moldova in 2005, in the news coverage by BASA-press

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OCTOBER

The Orhei-based winery Chateau Vartely starts making six brand wines aged older than 1.5 years by late 2005. The enterprise produced only ordinary wines until then.

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An experimental cache of American table grapes Concorde and Niagara will be planted in Floresti next spring by Moldovan-American nursery Sauron. Experts will study opportunity of adaptation of table grapes which grow in the northern region of the United States to the climate in the northern area of Moldova.

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The executive awarded on October 6 the prize for special merits in the vine growing sector in 2005 to the wine plant Dionysos Mereni based in the district of Anenii Noi. The Moldovan-American enterprise Dionysos Mereni reported a figure sale of 43.8 million lei (3.5 million dollars) for 2004, by some 30 percent more than in 2003.

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Nut and almond tree orchards will be extended 2.8-fold the next 15 years, up to 14,800 hectares, in line with a programme that the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry approved. The works for implementation of this concept were evaluated at 10 million lei (800,000 dollars), but no financing sources were announced so far.

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Members of 12 states of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organisation (BSEC) held a sitting in Chisinau and recommended Moldova to attract foreign investors to promote different forms of tourism.

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Moldovan wines made by DK-Intertrade under trademark Firebird Legend won bronze medals and prizes for the first time for Moldova at the recent international tasting Decanter World Wine Award 2005 in London.

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The tobacco crop dropped this year by 15 percent, down to 8,000 tons of dry leafs (more than 60,000 tons of green leafs), due to reduction of tobacco fields, according to data of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry.

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The Management Board of the National Agency for Regulation in Telecommunication and Informatics decided to reduce the payments for numbering resources for licence holders and service providers which apply for such resources by 40 percent.

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The GSM company Voxtel introduced a new service called International on occasion of its seventh anniversary. The product offers a discount of up to 25 percent for international calls.

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Moldova has real chances to benefit from a preferential commercial regime for several products from the European Union starting January 1, Premier Vasile Tarlev said on October 19.

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Moldova became full rights member of the Madrid-based world association of nut growers.

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The collection wine Codru from the 1987 crop made by winery Milestii Mici won the Grand Prix at a recent international tasting in the Russian capital, Moscow.

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Luxury limousines Rolls-Royce, worth at least 350,000 euros, were introduced in Moldova for the first time on October 24 and 25. The cars were taken to Moldova within a promotion for South-East Europe, organized by BMW, owner of Rolls-Royce (RR) brand. According to data of BMW, only one car of this model was sold in Moldova.

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The national wire telephony operator Moldtelecom officially opened on October 25, a new call centre to provide updated information through national telephone network.

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Moldova harvested about 500,000 tons of grapes this year, by 25 percent less than in 2004, the Agri-Industrial Agency MoldovaVin announced. The expert noted that the relatively low crop was due to cool weather in May-June, which caused an inefficient pollination, as well as to different diseases.

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Tiraspol sold the Bender-based bakery and cereals plant in exchange for 1.9 million dollar to the Transnistrian bank Gazprombank in a single package.

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NOVEMBER

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A batch of new 80 auto-vehicles worth 454,000 dollars were donated on November 2 to the Border Guard Service (BGS) of Moldova within the Enhancing Border Control Management Programme, funded by the European Union and co-funded and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme in Moldova.

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The Mold Vin Trading company with Romanian-Moldovan capital invested about five million euros in a wine bottling facility in the Romanian locality of Ceptura (Romania), and another five million euros will be allocated the next years for vineyards and promotion on market.

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The commercial banks Victoriabank and Moldova Agroindbank announced a joint action to promote transactions with VISA cards under slogan "Pay with VISA … and Attend the Olympics!"

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On November 8, 2005, the GSM company Moldcell launched a brand new product in premiere in Moldova – Moldocell Data Kit. Moldcell Data Kit allows connecting, at an advantageous tariffication the personal computer to the Internet anytime and anywhere, rapid data transferring, sending and receiving e-mails and SMS without holding the mobile or fix line busy.

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The Switzerland Cooperation Bureau of the Directorate for Development and Cooperation (DDC) approved five new projects on assistance of the Moldovan government in implementing the Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper.

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Eximbank started offering individuals the possibility of making money transfers via Anelik money transfer system.

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Moldcell mobile communications company installed in the capital of Moldova a new Base Station Controller (BSC).

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The National Commission for Securities of Moldova and the similar structure of Italy signed an understanding memorandum on technical cooperation between the two authorities.

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The GSM company Voxtel introduced a new service called credit transfer within the Year of the Client. This service allows subscribers to Voxtel packages to transfer sums of money equivalent with minutes from their accounts to account of any active Tempo client.

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Moldcell company in premiere and exclusively in Moldova launched a new service for amateurs of making pleasant surprises to the beloved ones – Paparazzi – on November 16.

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The new headquarter of the international customs station Criva (Briceni) opened on November 15, after a reconstruction that lasted nine months and cost 37 million lei (2.96 million dollars), money all ocated from the state budget and by the European Union.

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The Supreme Soviet in Tiraspol [local legislature] approved the 2006 budget of the unrecognised Moldovan Transnistrian republic, which comprises about one billion Transnistrian roubles (about 129.5 million dollars) in revenues and 1.2 billion roubles in spending.

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Eximbank started providing services via VIP Money Transfer (VMT).

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Moldindconbank offers credits to individuals who hold entrepreneurial activities on basis of patent, for a 24-month maximum term and a 19.5 percent annual interest rate.

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The GSM operator Moldcell launched on November 18 the promotional campaign "Be special" that will bring 888 special prizes with the occasion of winter holidays.

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The commercial bank EuroCreditBank implements a new product called Wap Banking for individuals and businesses.

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Tiraspol sold the entire stock of the Bender-based plant of thermo-insolating materials to the local company Beneton in exchange for 165,000 dollars.

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The executive decided on November 23, to create the Drug Agency, a new state-run structure with 150 workers, which will be in charge with expertise and registration of drugs, supervision and monitoring of medicine supply process.

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DECEMBER

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The company Vinuri-Ialoveni won the Grand-Prix, while Acorex Wine Holding, Vinaria Purcari, Vinaria Bostavan and Lion-Gri gained silver and bronze medals at the international Moscow Wine & Spirits Competition in the Russian capital.

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The parliament adopted the budget of the National Commission for Securities (CNVM), which stipulates lower taxes and payments for services of CNVM.

In particular, the tax for issuing of bonds was reduced from 0.5 percent down to 0.1 percent; the tax for registration of exchange deals was lowered from 2 percent down to 0.5 percent, while the tax for registration of transactions of donation between people who are not relatives of 1st, 2nd and 3rd degrees was reduced from 2 percent down to 1 percent.

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At least 8 percent of officers of the Moldovan Customs Service do not know enough the legislation regulating the customs activity, Vasile Magu, chief of the customs training directorate, told a sitting of the Customs Service.

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The producer of goods for consumption Unilever South-Central Europe opened the first distribution centre in Ploiesti, which will serve Romania and Moldova. "Up to 3.5 million euros was invested in this centre," the company said.

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Efes Vitanta Moldova Brewery, the largest beer producer in Moldova, launched a new type of beer – Chisinau Aurie – produced in 0.5-litre bottles.

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The GSM operator Voxtel offers a 50-percent discount to all new subscribers to classic packages for connection to any Voxtel package, with included minutes and two hours of free call in networks for one year (by 10 minutes a month). The promotion covers the period December 6, 2005 – January 14, 2006.

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The IMB company, the largest IT producer in the world, is interested in the Moldovan market, since this market is visibly developing every year, Gabriel Ciucu, representative of IBM Romania, said.

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The National Bank of Moldova intends to issue and introduce four jubilee and commemorative coins of 100 lei, 50 lei and 10 lei as payment means and for numismatic purpose next year.

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The International Exhibition Centre Moldexpo SA, the leading organiser of exhibitions in Moldova, announced an investment tender holding for the realisation of a leisure and entertainment centre for youth and adults, Entertainment Park.

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The Court of International Commercial Arbitrage of the Moldovan Chamber of Commerce (CCI) signed a cooperation agreement with the Permanent Arbitrage Court of Slovenia’s CCI.

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The GSM company Moldcell introduced a new and novel product for its subscribers on December 16 – Moldcell Transport Manager. Moldcell Transport Manager is an information system for online monitoring of transport units, which works round o’clock, and seven days a week, which clients can use to learn the exact location of transport, speed, route and places where it stopped at any moment.

The GSM company Moldcell introduced on December 16 a new service called Moldcell Smart Settings. The service allows users to send automatically GPRS settings to mobile telephones of subscribers. The service is based on a database capable to recognise 10,500 models of mobile phones.

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The republican centre for veterinary diagnosis in Chisinau opened a hotline [022-742-908] to provide free information about bird flu prevention measures.

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The parliament prolonged the action of the law on the 1997-1998 privatisation programme until December 31, 2006.

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Godina International, the only dealer of several Swiss watches producer in Moldova, registered a 20-percent rise of sales in 2005 compared with 2004, up to approximately 4,000 watches. A watch was worth 1,000-1,500 dollars on average.

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As much as 65.2 percent of respondents of a survey released by the Institute of Public Policies, do not believe that building business in Moldova is possible without giving bribes to functionaries.

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The National Commission for Securities (CNVM) registered on December 27 a constitution issue worth about 2.9 million lei, with a nominal value of 28,875 lei a share, for the joint society Moldantigrad.

The state-owned enterprise Serviciul Antigrindina owns 39 percent of shares, Topaz-Saliut holds 11 percent of shares, while two individuals from the Russian Federation own 50 percent of shares in the new manufacturer.

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The GSM company Moldcell launched the first GPRS Roaming relation. Thus, Moldcell subscribers who have both Roaming and GPRS services activated will have the opportunity to enjoy the GPRS Roaming Services. The first bilateral operators on 27th of December are Turkcell (Turkey) and Azercell (Azerbaijan).  // BASA-Press