Chisinau

Chișinău exemplifies extreme economic concentration—a single city containing 75% of a nation's economic turnover. Over 41,000 enterprises employ 334,000 workers, and small and medium businesses grew 6.9% in 2024, the best result in five years. While Moldova's overall economy stagnated at 0.1% GDP growth that year, the capital maintained momentum through diversification into IT, finance, and services.

The IT Park, offering a 7% flat tax guaranteed through 2035, has driven a fivefold increase in IT exports between 2018 and 2024. Services exports—predominantly IT—now represent 15% of national GDP. Planable's acquisition by SE Ranking, with plans to expand its Moldova-based R&D team, typifies the sector's growth pattern. At Moldova Business Week 2025, a Memorandum of Understanding established a new Chișinău Stock Exchange in partnership with Bucharest, with €3 million initial capital—symbolic of the capital's role as gateway to EU financial integration.

This concentration creates ecosystem dynamics. Fitch and Moody's stable outlooks for Moldova's sovereign ratings reflect confidence anchored in Chișinău's performance. The EU opened accession negotiations in June 2024, a process that runs through capital-based institutions and IT sector success stories. Yet the pattern also reveals fragility: when 75% of economic activity concentrates in one municipality, peripheral districts remain extractive zones rather than development partners. Chișinău's growth comes partly at the cost of the agricultural districts that feed it while losing their educated youth to its opportunities.