COMPETITIVENESS BENCHMARKING OF THE BALKAN COUNTRIES

The opportunities offered by the signing of the EU-Moldova Association Agreement can be capitalizedonly in the case of increasing the competitiveness of the national economy. The purpose of the investigationconsists in reorienting Moldova’s attention to the Balkan countries, which have become active actors in the EUenlargement process, their economies being more competitive than Moldova (except Bosnia-Herzegovina).For this end, by applying the benchmarking method, there has been made an attempt to identify the best practicesof Balkan countries (Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina). The GlobalCompetitiveness Report 2016-2017, the sub-index “Basic Conditions” has served as the base-information sourcegiven that the Republic of Moldova is ranked in the factor-driven economy category. The research results indicatethat the Republic of Moldova might find useful the experience of Balkan countries in such fields as the quality ofinstitutions and infrastructure, in macroeconomic stability, and the development of health and primary education.