Viorel Ciubotaru
The crushing and ever-expanding and hardening poverty of the Moldovan population is not caused by the crisis, but by the absence of economy as a system, the economy of the Moldovan society. Because no government, no ruling party has set itself the task of building a national economy. Under the presidency of Vladimir Voronin, serious attempts were made, even with relative success, to stop the general collapse of the country’s economy as a result of privatization. But it did not set itself such a task and could not set it, based on the emergency conditions in which the government was working at that time.
Today, the totality of enterprises (businesses) on the territory of the Republic of Moldova does not constitute an economic system, much less a national economy. They do not even form branches or sectors of the economy in the sense of systems, but only random “collections” or unsystematic “heaps” of disparate productions and services, which are only declared “branches” or “sectors” for the convenience of statistical accounting.
In these conditions, a strategic approach is needed not to restore the economy, but to create it on the basis of these haphazard “collections”.
The development of such a strategy is in principle impossible without the adoption of a constitutional law on state property, which would define the very essence of this phenomenon. State property is derived from the sovereignty of the respective state (neither colonies nor protectorates have state property.) And the purpose of this property is precisely to ensure (1) the functioning of sovereignty, (2) the growth and development of vital spheres of society, and (3) the creation of new industries along with the modernization of existing industries.
Figuratively speaking, state ownership is the locomotive driving the train of the national economy, in the passenger cars of which the society travels. Naturally, the passenger cars follow the commodity cars, which represent private interests expressed in enterprises that follow the locomotive. And without the locomotive, i.e. without effectively defined and, consequently, without effectively operating state property, all other cars not only stand idle, but scatter to all sorts of dead ends or even go off the rails, rotting in wastelands and abandoned places.
Based on its existential goals, state property is divided into commercial and non-commercial. The latter provides for the activities of all levels of government, including the army and the police, and also provides for the activities of vital spheres of society, which by nature cannot function in a commercial mode.
Of course, the key to the “train of the national economy” is the direction of the railroad track on which it moves. In other words, not any set of globally competitive sectors potentially forming the national economy of Moldova is acceptable for the survival of us as a society, as a nation. In other words, not any place in the international division of labor, in the geo-economic global profit is acceptable for the national economy of Moldova. Such a place, such a geo-economic role of the future potential Moldovan economy is determined on the basis of satisfying an organic (not mechanical, i.e. not allowing their coagulation as mechanical allows) system of criteria of existential level from the point of view of historical survival of our people.
Here it should be emphasized once again that economic growth (as a precondition for economic development) of a small economy is in principle impossible without guaranteed access to sufficiently solvent demand, i.e. to external relatively large markets. Simply put, economic growth is possible only for the national economy. And the colonial economy, especially the “multiple” colonial economy cannot grow in principle, because any increase in its efficiency is inevitably exported to the sectors of other national economies, in favor of which our home-grown “Moldovan” appendage enterprises work. Thus, colonies cannot grow economically, but only national (=sovereign) economies can.
But in case of a small state, which aspires to receive from some geopolitical pole the protection of its sovereignty, it is not able to offer the hegemon of the pole anything that could strategically interest it. At best, it can contribute to the fulfillment of geopolitical functions of some other actors of this pole, including interstate, or other non-geopolitical functions. Therefore, the potential partnership between a small state and the hegemon of the pole is strategic for the small state, but it is not so for the hegemon.
As a result, such a partnership by necessity cannot be mutually balanced and will allow a bias in favor of the hegemon. That is why a small state has to undertake disproportionately high obligations (in the form of expenditures of various resources) for its capabilities (economic, diplomatic, military, exploration, scientific, informational) to fulfill a certain (non-)geopolitical function in order to maximally (a) secure its sovereignty and (b) ensure the development of its national economy. Otherwise, the existence of such a state and, accordingly, of such a nation loses all meaning: in this case, this nation simply dissolves into neighboring, more numerous nations.
Building a national economy and its intensive growth presupposes investments in physical and human capital. And human capital with increased value emigrates even more surely. Taking into account the current migration flows, not only economic growth, not only building a national economy, but even the survival of economic activity in the Republic of Moldova (in the sense of existence of marginally profitable and at the same time sustainable activities) is impossible. This means a more or less rapid collapse of both the economy and demography (which are mutually conditioned).
What is the way out? Japan’s experience is already textbook in solving the problem of economic development in the absence of natural resources. In this case, the emphasis is placed on high-tech production, the basis of which is a highly educated and patriotic workforce that is disgusted by emigration, which does not exclude foreign tourism. Patriotism, on the other hand, is based on the awareness of personal responsibility for the collective continuation of one’s specific native, historically established culture on a civilizational scale.
P.S. This is a thesis of separate aspects of construction and development of national economy of Moldova. The integral approach is presented in the article “Methodological approach to the creation of the national economy of Moldova”. I am ready for discussions and debates on the problems put forward.
Viorel Ciubotaru,
strategic management consultant
