The Foreign Ministry hosted a meeting of the PMR Minister of Foreign Affairs Vitaly Ignatiev with the delegation of the Austrian Republic headed by State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance Hubert Fuchs. The meeting was also attended by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Austria to the Republic of Moldova Christine Freilinger, and Counsellor Attache of the Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Health and Consumer Protection of the Republic of Austria Gero Stuller. The Pridnestrovian side was represented by the First Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the PMR Alevtina Slinchenko, Deputy Minister of Finance of the PMR Alena Ruskevich and the Chairman of the Pridnestrovian Republican Bank Vladislav Tidva.
During the conversation, Vitaly Ignatiev elaborated on experience and current state of the negotiation process between Pridnestrovie and the Republic of Moldova, with an emphasis on the issue of participation of Pridnestrovian vehicles in the international road traffic. In this context, the diplomat informed the guests about scheduled for today signing of the Protocol Decision “On participation of vehicles from Pridnestrovie, which do not perform economic activity, in the international road traffic”. According to him, this agreement was preceded by intensive work at the level of specialized expert (working) groups and political representatives of the parties that resulted in creation of a special mechanism designed to remove restrictions in this area for the Pridnestrovian residents.
Vitaly Ignatiev emphasized that after signing the Protocol Decision the work will continue to ensure proper implementation of the mechanism and expressed hope that its effective functioning will “bring more stability in relations between Pridnestrovie and Moldova”.
Speaking about the prospects of the negotiation process, the PMR Foreign Minister noted that currently the priority for the Pridnestrovian side is to resolve full range of social and humanitarian issues directly affecting well-being of the Pridnestrovian citizens. At the same time, he stated that for today there are elements of pressure and restrictions in almost all spheres of Pridnestrovie’s life, paying special attention to the problem of joint Moldovan-Ukrainian customs and border control at the border of Pridnestrovie with Ukraine.
In the course of the conversation, there was a substantive discussion of the current areas of cooperation between Austria and Pridnestrovie in the financial and economic sphere. In particular, they focused on the prospects of attracting Austrian investments in the Republic, interbank cooperation and the growth of bilateral trade turnover. In this context, the First Deputy Minister of Economic Development Alevtina Slinchenko provided the guests with detailed information on the draft law on state support for investment activities submitted for adoption to the Supreme Council of the PMR, including the tax privileges and preferences for investors.
At the end of the meeting the interlocutors agreed to continue systematic working communication in all areas of mutual interest.
