Description

Business Research Company (BRC) is a privately owned and independent consulting firm, registered as limited liability company in 2005 in Chisinau, Moldova, operating on national and international scale. It has been founded by a group of professionals (partners) specialized in public policy formulation, ex-ante and ex-post regulatory impact assessment, regulatory reform and private sector development.

Our team

BRC staff includes unique experts who successfully implemented most comprehensive and renowned regulatory reforms in Moldova, such as Guillotine 1 (revision of more than 1000 regulations), Guillotine 2 (revision of 80 laws) and Guillotine 2+ (revision of more than 400 permits). Our team includes professionals who designed and implemented regulatory impact analysis, regulatory one-stop-shops, reforms in licensing/permits, inspections, regulatory reporting, "Doing Business" indicators and other reforms in Moldova. 

Our services

BRC offers a group of high value services both for public sector and businesses:

• Regulatory Impact Assessment
• Legal Analysis and Drafting
• Regulatory Reform Solutions
• Legal Services
• Quality Management Solutions

Our work

BRC successfully implemented numerous regulatory reform and private sector support projects funded by EU, USAID, UNDP, World Bank, other donors and private companies.

BRC was the first company that delivered RIA trainings in accordance to official methodology in Moldova and set the ground for proper implementation of RIA, mandatory since 2008. BRC offers a vast range of consulting services related to analysis and elaboration of regulations (primary and secondary legislation) related to fiscal, trade, customs, construction, technical regulation, sanitary and phytosanitary, licensing etc.

BRC's legal experts are not just able to offer widespread legal services and assistance but due to their involvement into the process of legislative creation they also have the knowledge of how and why the existing regulatory framework was created and how it could be better applied in different situations. In most of business fields, BRC is able to determine the future changes of the business regulatory framework and, thus help its clients to adjust in time to the new rules. Beyond common legal issues and general corporate matters BRC's legal experts can guide you through less familiar fields for lawyers, such as standardization, technical regulations, metrology, industrial security, sanitary regulations etc.

The most renowned regulatory reform solutions implemented by BRC experts include:

• "Guillotine II+" - revision of all business permits (mandatory public services rendered to businesses). A group of BRC experts carried out an unprecedented work of researching and proposing solutions to streamline all business permits in Moldova. A total of 473 business permits including related to quality infrastructure, have been revised and specific measures recommended for each permit. This work resulted in adoption by the Parliament of the Law on authorization of business activity, which included an annex with 273 valid permits in Moldova; and the Law on implementation of one-stop-shop (OSS), both at the central and local public authorities levels.
• Streamlining the construction authorization. Carried out research and impact assessment analysis in the field of construction authorization, and contributed to drafting the Law no. 163. on authorization of construction works, passed by the Parliament on 09.07.2010. It was estimated that the law would save around $5 million annually for the private sector.
• Studies on opportunities for establishing one-stop-shops (OSS) for central and local public authorities, including in construction and trade permits. Studies recommended measures to reduce time, costs, number of formalities and opportunities for corruption. Additionally, BRC team developed and assisted in adoption of the Law on implementation of OSS (Law no. 161, dated 22.07.2011), which set grounds for proper implementation and enforcement of OSS solutions on a large scale both within central and local governments.
• "Doing Business" Indicators Reform. BRC experts reviewed and proposed streamlining measures to improve Moldova ranking on Ease of Doing Business Indicators (Doing Business, World Bank Group), which contributed to placing Moldova among top 10 reformers according to Doing Business 2010 and 2012.
• Improvement of business licensing procedures, which included: recommendations to streamline formalities; development of licensing guides for 37 licensed activities; development and implementation of electronic solutions within the Licensing Chamber, including on-line licensing guides, on-line access to database of licensed companies, electronic OSS. The results were highly appreciated by businesses and during the opening event by the Prime Minister of Moldova and USA Ambassador.
• Training and assistance in strengthening the capacity of central and local governments and regional BAs in designing and implementing regulatory reform initiatives, including regulatory impact assessment, business ombudsman, transparency, one-stop-shop etc.
• Optimization of reporting requirements, which included: development of methodology to periodically assess the reporting burden and supervise the conducting of the business surveys on reporting burden and requirements; development of proposals to simplify the reporting requirements and improving access for citizens and businesses to government information.

Our clients and partners

BRC worked with most of the regulators in Moldova, who have been beneficiaries of our work, including: Ministry of Economy and its agencies (Licensing Chamber, Consumer Protection Agency, Inspectorate on Technical Surveillance of Industrial Dangerous Objects, Energy Inspectorate; National Institute on Standardization and Metrology); Ministry of Finance and its agencies (State Tax Service, Customs Services); Ministry of Justice and its agencies (Chamber of Registration, ) Ministry of Health and its agencies (Sanitary Agency, State Registry of Juridical Acts); Ministry of Internal Affairs and its agencies (Fire-safety Agency); Ministry of Regional Development and Construction and its agencies (State Inspection in Construction, State Service for Verification and Expertise of Construction Projects);  Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry and its agencies (Sanitary-Veterinary Agency; Phyto-sanitary Surveillance Inspectorate, Alcoholic Products Surveillance Inspectorate, etc.); Ministry of Transportation and Road Infrastructure and its agencies (National Transport Agency, etc.); Ministry of Environment (State Environment Inspectorate); Ministry of Health (Sanitary Agency, Drugs Agency, etc.); National Bureau of Statistics; Cadastre Agency; Center for Fighting Economic Crimes and Corruption; etc.

Our clients include international technical assistance organizations, such as European Commission, USAID, UNDP, DFID, World Bank. In our work we have established short and long term partnerships with renowned and reputable international organizations, which include: DAI, Romanian Bureau of Legal Metrology, Romanian Movement for Quality, Centre for European Policy Studies,  Jacobs and Associates and other firms and organizations.