Moldova goes up four positions on Forbes top of best countries for business

Moldova ranks 88^th among 145 countries on a top of the best countries for business, worked out by the Forbes magazine, according to this publication’s official webpage. In 2012, Moldova was on the 92nd position out of 141 countries.

In the Forbes’ top, Moldova is positioned immediately after Serbia and Libya and outruns such countries as Madagascar, Russia, China, Liberia, India. Estonia is on the best 23th position out of the former Soviet republics. It is followed by Lithuania (25th), Latvia (35th), Georgia (50th), Armenia (64th), Azerbaijan (67th) and Kazakhstan (70th). Russia ranks 91st against the 105th position last year and Ukraine ranks 99th. Romania went up nine positions on top from 60 in 2012 to 51 in 2013.

Moldova improved its business image by four positions on this top against the previous one. At the same time, the country made progress and ranked 65th in terms of “trade freedom.” Moldova got the best marks as regards the “technology” (62nd place), “bureaucracy level” (68), “investors’ protection” (66), “personal freedom” (69), “fiscal burden” (73). At the same time, Moldova went down to the lowest positions on top in terms of “innovations” (134), and “property rights” (116th place).

Forbes experts said that, despite the recent economic progress, “Moldova remains one of the poorest countries of Europe. The state enjoys a friendly climate and good farmlands, yet, it has no big mineral reserves, hence, the economy depends on agriculture to a great extent.”.

With scarce natural energy resources, Moldova imports almost all the energy resources from Russia and Ukraine. Moldova depends very much on the remittances, which exceed one billion dollars annually.

Moldova’s economic future remains vulnerable to the political uncertainties, poor administration capacity, obscure bureaucratic interests, high prices for energy resources and problems dealing with the foreign investors, as well as the presence of an illegal breakaway regime in the Transnistrian region of Moldova, Forbes also said.

Ireland ranks first on the top of the prestigious U.S. magazine. It is followed by New Zeeland, Denmark and Sweden.

Both the key economic indexes, such as, for instance, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), inflation and unemployment, as well as the degree of economic freedom, investments’ protection, trade freedom, innovations, fiscal system and legislation were taken into account while working out the top.

Adapted from Мoldpres