The pace of economic reform is speeding up in Pridnestrovie withmeasures to boost local manufacturing and small businesses.Registration time for new firms is cut in half. New companies are alsogiven a three year tax free "no tax holiday." . .

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - Capitalism is about to become a wholelot easier in Pridnestrovie (informally known as Transdniestria, inEnglish).

Thanks to a new set of measures by the unrecognized country's Parliament, led by the pro-reform Renewal-politicianYevgeny Shevchuk, legislation is initiated which will encourage thecreation of new private companies and give a boost to small businesses.

A package of documents is aimed at streamlining registration andlicensing procedure as well as offering tax relief to small companies,the parliamentary press office reports.

Among the incentives: Tax holidays. New companies will be exemptfrom corporate tax for three years from their date of registration. Redtape is to be slashed, too, which will simply and streamline theprocedures for creating new companies in Pridnestrovie. The time neededfor registration will be reduced from 10 to 5 days.

"Teenage capitalism"

Wheeling and dealing in the free market is not just for grown-ups:Parliament also wants teenagers to become small-time capitalists intheir spare time. Members of the Parliamentary Committee for economicpolicy, budget and finance in Pridnestrovie approved changes to thesole trader license law that allows full-time students to apply for asole trader license for days-off and holidays.

The state will subsidize them: The young entrepreneurs will getfifty percent off on the normal license fees. Why? So they can learn onthe job and start dabbling in the free market early:

" - Changes to the sole trader license law allowing students to dobusiness will stimulate the student entrepreneurs to gain experience indoing business and they will become skillful entrepreneurs aftergraduation from the university," explained MP Viktor Guzun in Tiraspolon Thursday.

Boost for small-scale manufacturers

The productive sector will also benefit from the new reforms, withspecial emphasis on helping small-scale manufacturers get off theground and produce products locally which until now have been importedfrom the neighboring states of Ukraine or Moldova.

" - It may be any kind of activity, for instance, manufacturing ofice-cream, chocolate or ravioli, or mini-canneries," said Viktor Guzun."We should manufacture everything that is possible here [inPridnestrovie, ed.] and not import it."

MP Mikhail Burla, head of the economic policy committee, expects thenew legislation will create more jobs, give a boost to localmanufacturing and provide the market with more goods produced withinthe borders of Pridnestrovie.

The new reform measures aim to make Pridnestrovie's private sectormore competitive and increase the role of the free market in thecountry's economy. According to the press service of the PMRParliament, in foreign states with a highly developed market economy,seventy percent of all jobs are created by small and medium businesseswho also contribute fifty percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).