OREANDA-NEWS. October 21, 2009. The relevant changes to Moldovan legislation, proposed in course of the round table "Protecting the shareholders’ rights for stimulating investment, were based on the estimates of the Doing Business Report 2010, conducted by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation. According to the report, the investment protection index for Moldova is 4.7 points from possible 10.

Thus, according to the report, as regards protecting of the investors’ rights, Moldova ranks 109 (from 183 states), being behind such countries as Russia (103), Czech Republic (93), Armenia (93), Tajikistan (73 ), Romania (41), Papua New Guinea (41), Georgia (30), Azerbaijan (20), Kyrgyzstan (12) etc. The proposed amendments can be grouped into three categories. The first category refers to the process of improvement of informational support.

The changes will include disclosure of information on transactions with conflict of interest so that the Joint Stock Company and the shareholders can have access to the documents relating to such transactions. The second is ensuring shareholders’ rights to defend their rights and corporate interests. Thus, the governing bodies of the company will be responsible for verification of activity carried out by any persons in position of responsibility and, if detection of irregularities, to dismiss him or to attract liability under the labor law.

At the same time, the National Commission will perform control relating to transactions with securities and transactions with conflict of interest. The third category of changes involves ensuring control of transactions with conflict of interest by the bodies responsible for such transactions. In the result of implementing these amendments, a greater protection of shareholders will be provided and functions and powers of the authorities involved will be better bounded.

The authors ascertain that if the amendments are approved, the investment protection index of Doing Business report will increase from 4.7 up to 9.67 points and the ranking index of the investment protection will place Moldova at one of the first positions (109 now). The roundtable was held at the meeting of the National Commission for Financial Market, within the frameworks of the "regulatory reform of the business activity and tax administration in Moldova" project (USAID | BIZTAR). The discussions were attended by representatives of the public government, independent experts and representatives of associations of the financial market.