Over the past two years, the Government of Moldova has promoted seven deregulation packages aimed at simplifying business operations by eliminating unjustified and inefficient bureaucratic requirements. These reforms foster a more business-friendly environment, providing enterprises with greater flexibility and growth opportunities.

Packages 1 and 2 eliminate the obligation for employers to approve internal regulations and draft pre-employment contracts. They also ease the hiring of ICT specialists under fixed-term contracts. The permanent medical file, known as the “blue passport,” is replaced with a medical certificate, reducing the bureaucratic burden for around 20,000 employees in the HORECA sector and beyond. Additional measures include removing the obligation to maintain a receipt register, raising the threshold for tax arrears from 100 to 500 lei, and allowing VAT deductions for purchases up to 2,000 lei paid with a business card.

Package 3 brings essential amendments to state control legislation, ensuring a clearer and fairer application of rules. It broadens the law’s scope to include other types of control, aligns the responsibilities of inspection bodies with their competencies, and introduces sanctions for inspectors imposing unlawful measures. These changes reduce the risk of abusive sanctions and lighten bureaucratic pressure on businesses.

Package 4 updates 12 laws by eliminating unnecessary constraints and reducing red tape. Notable measures include the recognition of EU commodity exchanges, modernization of stock exchange legislation, simplification of public utility connection procedures, and elimination of the complaint register.

Package 5 introduces further simplification of regulations, easing administrative burdens for businesses and employers. It removes the requirement to record and report potential recruits to military centers and eliminates mandatory medical adaptation exams, including those for employees using computers. Subsidy access has also been expanded to rural tourism facilities — such as rural homes, guesthouses, and handicraft units — supporting local tourism development.

Package 6 eliminates the mandatory packaging of bakery products, the coordination of mineral resource reports, and some restrictions on non-bank lending institutions. It also streamlines control procedures related to public investment in construction.

Package 7 amends 16 laws to cut administrative burdens. Measures include digitalizing shareholder processes, removing the monopoly on fire safety training, lowering accreditation fees (MOLDAC), and simplifying rural pharmacy licensing. Restrictions on wholesale trade have been lifted, and voluntary business liquidation has been simplified.

These legislative changes — generating annual savings of around one billion lei for entrepreneurs — were developed by the Ministry of Economic Development and Digitalization, in collaboration with the Economic Council to the Prime Minister, with support from UNDP Moldova and the USAID-funded Moldova Institutional and Structural Reforms Activity (MISRA).

The Secretariat of the Economic Council to the Prime Minister is supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, funded by the UK Government’s Good Governance Fund.