Economica

11

Authors: Tatiana GUTIUM, Mihail CIOBANU

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted economies, the food system and consumer behaviour. In order to emerge from the crisis caused by SARS-CoV-2, with minimal losses, it is very important to know how the behaviour of both producers and consumers’ changes. In this study, the analysis of the impact of the pandemic on the change of consumers’ eating habits, preferences and consumption trends is performed based on the opinion poll. The aim of the research is to identify a new paradigm of consumer behaviour in the Republic of Moldova. The results of the research showed that there was a change in the paradigm of consumer behaviour, which led to healthier consumption and there was an upward trend in on-line procurement.

14

Authors: Mariana ȘENDREA

This article presents the experiences and results of different companies which confirm the topicality and necessity of this trend. From this perspective, this article comes with the presentation of certain results of the effects obtained from the implementation of changes in the work program. In addition, concepts such as flexible working hours, the compressed working week or the reduction of standard working hours to 30 hours per week have become increasingly popular among millennial1 employees, being even tested by some large companies in the USA and developed EU countries.

15

Authors: Larisa DODU-GUGEA, Zorina ȘIȘCAN, Liliana CONDRAȚCHI, Olesea FORTUNĂ

Starting from studies conducted in the field, the authors define sustainable economy as a global trend and identify co-creation power of circular ecosystem in the Republic of Moldova. Attention is paid to sustainable economy as based on managing resources in interest of not only contemporary generations, but also the future ones. The implementation of policies related to business interests should be closely linked to sustainable development of natural and socio-cultural ecosystems. The technologies of circular economy directly contribute to sustainable economy. The ecological crisis and the current pandemic situation are leading to a revision of socio-economic values that result in the need to form circular global ecosystem. The round table of 18.12.2020, organized by the authors within ASEM, confirmed that activists, entrepreneurs, academics and political decision makers, being driving forces of sustainable economy, capitalize on this global trend, co-creating the circular ecosystem.

16

Authors: Ludmila BELIBAN-RAȚOI

The contract is the subject of civil law that creates the basic entity of the national and international economy, and the contracting process is the most important stage in economic affairs in general. Naturally producing effects between the parties, we can say that vis-à-vis the parties, the contract is binding, or, in other words, the signatory parties must comply with the provisions of the contract. On the other hand, compared to third parties, the effects of the contract being only an exception, we can say that the production of the effects towards them is relative. This study represents an exemplary synthesis of the theoretical and practical dimension of the issue of the third party notion in the light of the new regulations of the Civil Code, norms that created new ways of economic development of the Republic of Moldova.

10

Authors: Igor TURCANU

The latest processes, which take place in the socio-economic and political system of the country, determine the State Tax Service to be much more transparent and dynamic in its activity. Transparency and dynamism is conditioned, in particular, by legal entities, who want to develop partnership relations with the State Tax Service by establishing a constructive dialogue, by implementing the voluntary compliance mechanism, by popularizing the existing tax legislation in the field. The change of attitude is necessary both for the internal and external environment of the public institution, considering that the taxpayers are targeted. Thus, the process of change, within the State Tax Service, can be carried out by the institutional management, using different approaches, depending on the premises from which these changes start. From this perspective, this article comes with some suggestions and recommendations on improving the tax mechanism through the change management.

13

Authors: Marina SOLOVIOVA

This paper tackles the potential effects of the fundamental changes that China’s economy is undergoing on the rest of the world. Thus, a range of effects in the development of China’s imports of goods and services can have on other countries were identified, in terms of China’s switching from investment to consumption and from manufacturing to services and innovations, as well as in exports, in the light of China’s upward movement within the global value chain. The spread of effects via the financial channel is examined for direct investment and external loans, with an emphasis on changes in both the size of financial flows and the motivation of Chinese investors. The emerging trend of relative reduction in China’s foreign exchange reserves, as well as the potential effects of the yuan’s internationalization going forward in terms of diminishing global current account imbalances were evaluated.

14

Authors: Inga BULAT, Rodica PERCIUN

In the last decade, the activity of organizing and conducting internal audit in the public sector is a major concern and studied at state and global level. The form of organization and functioning depends on the complexity and size of the public entity. Lately, more and more often, both globally and in the country level, the studies of management specialists on the role and leadership styles of a manager and how to form a consolidated and motivated team are approached. This article will address the general and essential aspects of a manager of the public sector internal audit subdivision, who is meant to be the manager and team leader in the audit missions performed.

14

Authors: Natalia TIMBALIUC, Aliona GUSUVATI

Nowadays, humanity is increasingly focusing on the principles of sustainable development, which are becoming more and more important, and universities are acting as agents to promote these principles in society. Many universities are doing important work regarding environmental issues, but also social and economic issues, thus including the three dimensions of sustainability. This article highlights important concepts related to sustainable development, compares and contrasts the definitions of education for sustainable development versus environmental education. The aim of this study is to examine the need to create a universal tool for assessing sustainability and to incorporate it into the classification system of universities. Finally, it can be said that higher education institutions need to make more strenuous efforts to improve their performance in relation to the variables of environment, infrastructure, transport and education.

17

Authors: Valentin BRICEAG, Tudor BRAGARU

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digitization of business processes, remote work/ access to sensitive data and critical corporate resources. There is a fast expansion of cloud computing services. The cybercrime follows the same trend: the sudden rise of global ransomware attacks, theft and disclosure of personal data, attacks on news sites, phishing email attacks, etc. The cybercrime increase reported since the beginning of the pandemic is about 300%. As a result, cyber security has become very important for all organizations,of all types and sizes. This paper aims to elucidate modern trends in the assessment and treatment of cyber security risks of an entity, automatize the cyber security processes to remove repetitive tasks and reduce the influence of the human factor.

12

Authors: Andrei PETROIA, Elena ZUBCOVA

The pandemic crisis is a major challenge for the entire international community, which is barely gaining the necessary experience in combating COVID-19 infection, exchanging information and cooperating with specialized international organizations. The first lesson, learned immediately after the outbreak of the crisis, is that in a globalized world the appropriate response to the pandemic challenge can only be a complex one, on different levels at national and international level. In the Republic of Moldova, the pandemic highlighted all the shortcomings in the medical system and determined the authorities to find financial resources in order to direct them for urgent needs. Preventing the spread of COVID- 19 infection and its effects required the adequacy of the legislative framework on emergencies, existing at the time of the pandemic, as well as a financial and administrative effort, with an impact on short-term socio-economic processes and citizens’ incomes, without knowing the medium and long-term impact. Thus, 2020 is the year with the largest investment in Health as a percentage of GDP in the last 3 years. Health has become a priority against a background of strong financial instability and a possible recession.

15

Authors: Larisa DODU-GUGEA

The purpose of this article is to analyze the experience of creating the European innovation ecosystem that is being formed in the context of regional competition and, on this basis, the development of the innovation ecosystem is one of the key strategies for overcoming crises. Nowadays, the business ecosystems draw enormous attentiveness. Initially defined from the perspective of competitive dynamics, the concept has undergone a series of interrelationships giving it a multidisciplinary character. According to the Europe 2020 strategy, sustainable growth growingly depends on the innovation and transformation capacity of regional economies to adapt to a constantly changing and increasingly competitive environment. This means that more effort must be invested in creating ecosystems that encourage innovation, research and entrepreneurship development. For this reason, entrepreneurial ecosystems have become the object of research, both by academic groups, development agencies, governments and NGOs at national, regional and international levels.

20

Authors: Aliona BALAN

Foreign direct investment is a major factor in stimulating economic growth, producing positive effects on the recipient country, both through traditional methods, related to the contribution to the capital stock and increasing the return on investment, and on the productivity of the target economy, and, from this perspective, it is a topical issue. The topicality of the investigated subject is determined by the need to amplify the investment process in the Republic of Moldova as a precondition for accelerating the economic development of the country, which is impossible to achieve without attracting foreign direct investment and improving investment policy in the Republic of Moldova. Promoting an appropriate policy to attract foreign direct investment would help achieve the country’s national development goals by creating jobs, transferring technology, promoting exports, sustainable economic growth and reducing poverty. The purpose of the research is to analyse the trends in the development of foreign direct investment and the determinants of their attraction in the economy of the Republic of Moldova.

12

Authors: Natalia GALANTON

Recent events related to the COVID-19 pandemic have confirmed that we are increasingly prone to various shocks: geopolitical tensions, natural disasters, climate changes and others. All these events draw our attention to the fact that there is a need for supply chains that are pro-actively protected against disruption and can adapt quickly to the situation. In a period of frequent shocks, it becomes complicated or in some cases even impossible to optimize costs. In order to manage the flow of goods, finance, data about a product or service supply chains need to be understood more deeply and a variety of dimensions. In this article is analysed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on supply chains and their transformations, which are generated by this health and economic crisis in order to strengthen shock resistance.

14

Authors: Ala COTELNIC, Constantin SCARLAT

This article aims to highlight the importance of human resources within an organization. In this sense, we have analysed the evolution of the concepts mainly related to personnel and human resource, as well as their management. Today, organizations, and society as a whole, are facing the need to change methods, working techniques and find new ways of working, adapting to the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that the human resource of an organization is the most affected resource and requires special treatment from managers both during the pandemic and in the post-pandemic period. The benefit is on the part of the organization by maintaining efficient staff and, respectively, by ensuring performance and productivity.

16

Authors: Alexandru LEAHOVCENCO

In the contemporary world, with all its challenges, it is difficult to detect trends in any field. The rapid development of information technologies has caused a huge wave of information, which in turn has affected the methods of its processing and transformation. As a result, new concepts and new economic models emerged. As far as the subject of the article is concerned, it is clear that the dogmatism of traditional trade is exhausted and is turning into a new model. This phenomenon, called digitalization, has penetrated all areas of human society but the most important thing is that it has affected the main branch of human society, trade. The given article outlines ideas and concepts that reveal this process of transforming traditional commerce into a digital model, giving explanations of main criteria that affect this process and forecasting trends that will prevail in the promising future in which the transformation of the traditional trade model will be completed.

18

Authors: Eugenia FEURAS

One of the prerequisites for growing and maintaining the competitiveness of national economies is to have a productive, creative and adaptive to change workforce. Its education is carried out by obtaining new key competencies, including cognitive competencies. The purpose of the article is to bring arguments for the need of scientific literacy to ensure employability in the labour market, and the outcome is to propose a model of training and gradual development of the cognitive competences at all education levels: primary, secondary and tertiary. This article is based on a constructivist epistemological approach and the basic research methods are analysis, synthesis and crosscurricular integration.

11

Authors: Anastasia BEJAN

The COVID-19 pandemic has distorted the economic situation around the world, affecting the incomes of enterprises and consumers. This fact also influences the financial situation of banks, given the key role of the banking system in accumulating temporarily free money from the economy and investing these resources in loans. In the current situation, the Central Banks’ efforts from all over the world are aimed at ensuring the stability of the banking sector, maintaining the financial intermediation and the functions of banks, as well as mitigating the potential effects of slowing economic growth. The present article examines the measures taken by the Central Banks of the European Union to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the actions taken by the National Bank of Moldova in this context and as well the measures needed to be taken forwards by the commercial banks to preserve their capital and liquidity.

13

Authors: Maria CIUBOTARU, Irina FRUNZE

This article includes the new approach of banking performance, which clarifies the relationship between return on equity (ROE), risk-adjusted return on capital (RAROC) and return on assets (ROA). The theoreticalmethodological approach highlights more recent research in the international literature and identifies how factors influence the development of mentioned three ratios of returns, using the DuPont* Model for corporates. As a result, the methodological framework for analysing the performance of indigenous commercial banks was developed, based on the particularities of the financial statements of the banking system in the Republic of Moldova. The proposed approach combines the traditional and modern models to measure the banking performance and identify the links between the financial ratios. The proposed methods can be applied to analyse the influence of factors on bank performance and formulate objectives and targets for the financial indicators of commercial banks.

14

Authors: Iulita BIRCA, Ivan LUCHIAN, Mariana Rodica TIRLEA

Foreign investments represent placements in the territory of a country made by non-resident investors. Depending on the approach position, they are considered as forms of international investment and part of international investment market. The aim of research was to study global transformations in the field of foreign investments, which can influence the investment process in the Republic of Moldova. For this purpose, databases formed by international institutions, as well as experts’ opinions in the approached field were studied. The global market for foreign investments can be divided in two main segments: foreign direct investments and foreign portfolio investments. The research’ results are major importance both from the point of view of global financial processes, as well as for outlining benchmarks for perfecting întreand promoting the investment policy in the Republic of Moldova.

15

Authors: Olesea PLOTNIC, Mihaela IARMENCO

The development of the Energy Union, in the context of the sustainable development of European society, aims at “clean energy for all Europeans”, which is difficult to achieve. The process of transition to clean energy is facing many difficulties, as some countries do not have a pan-European vision of how to streamline the energy process. In order to ensure energy stability and continuous development in this field, states must find a compromise in which to delimit national interests from European social interests. From this point of view, Governments tend to harmonize national legislation according to the European standards. They also aim to implement European energy strategies at national level in order to liberalize the energy market, promote renewable energy, attract investment to produce zero-emission energy and reduce it on 43%, by 2030, carbon dioxide emissions from the European Union economy.

18

Authors: Lacrimioara VASILICA CIOMARTAN

Educational capital is an essential factor in promoting the economic sector and is the most important investment in human capital. And if education is an important factor in promoting the economic sector, the opposite can also be used: economic modernization means new opportunities and stimulation for the additional acquisition of human capital. This is an additional argument to be able to know the science of our book cannot be ignored by these social or economic, sectorial or regional policy proposals. The purpose of the present paper is to prefigure a presentation on the statistical indicators in the field of online dissemination education by the two major official institutions: the National Institute of Statistics in Romania and the National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova. In the process of paper elaboration, in order to be in conformity with the methodological requirements existing at the academic level, a variety of research methods were considered, which will be involved in the capitalization of the main directions of the paper.