Presidency of the Republic of Moldova
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Your Excellency, President Pellegrini,
Distinguished business leaders, dear friends,
Welcome to the Moldova–Slovakia Business Forum.
Mr President and I had productive political meetings earlier today. The dialogue is strong, the will is there on both sides.
But political will only means something when it translates into concrete projects, real business deals, and tangible benefits — for your companies, for our economies, and ultimately for our people. That is what this forum is for.
We meet at a moment when both our economies — and Europe as a whole — are navigating real uncertainty. Supply chains are shifting. Energy security has become a strategic priority. The rules of global trade are being rewritten.
In times like these, proximity matters. Reliability matters. Shared interests matter. The partnership between Moldova and Slovakia is built on all three.
Today, I am here with a simple message: Moldova is open for business. And the time is now.
Let me start with what has changed — because the Moldova of 2026 is not the Moldova of five years ago.
We eliminated our dependence on Russian gas. We are reforming our judiciary, dismantling corrupt networks that for years made doing business in Moldova a gamble.
We are aligning our standards, our regulations, our institutions with the European Union — not because we are told to do so by Brussels, but because we understand that this is the foundation on which real investment can grow.
And the EU has taken notice. Moldova is a candidate for EU membership. Technical accession negotiations are open across all six clusters of EU legislation. We are receiving the second tranche of the EU Growth Plan in direct recognition of our reform progress. And our target is clear: EU accession by the end of this decade.
Now, what does this mean for the people in this room?
The EU's Growth Plan for Moldova unlocks close to €2 billion in financing — tied directly to investment in energy, transport, digital infrastructure, industry, and economic modernisation.
This money is moving into the Moldovan economy as projects, tenders, contracts, and infrastructure. It is creating demand — real, funded, bankable demand — for companies with the expertise and ambition to deliver.
Slovak companies are very well placed here. Slovakia built its own modern infrastructure on EU funds after 2004. You know how this works. You know how to read a tender, how to structure a consortium, how to deliver at European standards. That knowledge is directly transferable to Moldova today — and the window is open.
Let me be specific.
In energy, we are investing heavily in grid modernisation, renewables, and energy efficiency in public buildings — schools, hospitals, municipal infrastructure. SlovakAid has already pioneered this through thermal insulation projects in our schools. We want to scale this up. Slovak companies with expertise in energy efficiency contracting have a natural entry point here, backed by EU financing.
Then there is agribusiness that we are proud of. We export honey, wine, fresh fruits, sunflower seeds. Our exports to Slovakia grew by over thirty percent last year. But we are still only scratching the surface. What we need is deeper commercial relationships and processing investment on the ground in Moldova to unlock it.
In manufacturing and industrial parks, this is an area I want to highlight with particular emphasis — and one where I believe Slovakia has something uniquely valuable to offer, beyond capital.
After joining the EU in 2004, Slovakia used EU-backed funding to strengthen its industrial base, including through industrial parks. That helped lay the foundations for a manufacturing boom, and Slovakia became the world’s leading car producer per capita.
Moldova is now at an earlier stage of that journey — and we are inviting Slovak companies and institutions to bring that experience and know-how to Moldova.
As global supply chains restructure and companies seek alternatives to more distant or more volatile production locations, Moldova offers a European-standard regulatory environment, converging with the EU single market, at a cost structure that remains highly competitive.
In digital and IT, the foundations are stronger than many people realise. In less than a decade, Moldova's IT industry has grown to over €1 billion, contributing around 7% of GDP. This was driven by a simple but bold decision: a 7% single tax regime within Europe's first virtual IT park — a model that has attracted over 2,500 companies from more than 40 countries. Moldova is today a competitive, agile digital hub, integrated into global markets.
And behind these numbers is something that cannot be manufactured overnight: talent. Moldova has a young, educated technology workforce — multilingual, technically strong, and internationally connected. Slovak companies in software, IT services, and digital infrastructure will find in Moldova not just a market, but a genuine talent pool that is already delivering for global clients.
Building on this foundation, we are now developing the Moldova HiTech Park — an innovation city that brings together advanced manufacturing, research and development, and digital innovation across agri-tech, energy, and healthcare.
For Slovak companies, particularly in automotive and electronics, this creates a distinctive opportunity: to combine industrial excellence with software, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity — and to develop the next generation of smart, competitive production within an EU-aligned ecosystem. The industrial and the digital, in one place, under one roof.
In tourism, Moldova remains genuinely undiscovered. Our wine culture is extraordinary — from some of the world’s largest underground wine cellars, carved into limestone and stretching for kilometres, to small family-run vineyards where guests are welcomed with homemade food.
Our landscapes are beautiful, our hospitality is warm, and the new direct Bratislava–Chișinău flight, launched in January, has brought us within just two hours of each other. We hope many Slovak travellers will come and discover Moldova for themselves.
I want to return to something I said at the beginning, because I think it is the most important argument I can make.
We aim for Moldova to be in the European Union before this decade is out. When that happens, the companies that are already present in Moldova, would have established relationships, local knowledge, operational infrastructure, and the goodwill that comes from having been here when it mattered.
Slovakia joined the EU fifteen years after the end of communism. Moldova is following in your footsteps but under more difficult circumstances, with a war on our doorstep. But our determination is real. Our reforms are real. Our EU commitment is real.
Moving into Moldova now is not a bet on a distant possibility. It is an early position in a market that is, by design and by political commitment, converging with the European single market.
Concretely, for investors considering Moldova, here is what we bring to the table:
A deep and comprehensive free trade area with the EU. A workforce that is multilingual and motivated. A location that sits at the intersection of EU markets, Ukraine's post-war reconstruction opportunity, and the broader regional economy.
We still have work to do. I will not pretend otherwise. But the progress is there and the commitment is personal.
Today, our investment agencies and our chambers of commerce are formalising their cooperation. That is the institutional foundation. What we need now is for you — the people in this room — to build on it.
Talk to your counterparts. Visit Moldova. Come to Moldova Investment Days and our Digital Summit in June, or the Business Week in September. Come to our National Wine Day in October. And when you find an opportunity, know that you will have the full support of the Moldovan government in making it work.
We are a small country. But we are a determined one. And we have learned something important in recent years: that size is not what defines ambition.
Thank you.
