Flying the Moldovan Flag: Registration of ships and yachts in Moldova

For a long period of time ships flying the Moldovan flag were seen as something exceptional. The country was landlocked, and the task of developing the area of maritime law was not a priority. However, certain agreements reached with Ukraine, under which Moldova has got the access to the portion of the Danube river allowing to start building the Giurgiulesti sea port, have changed the situation. In August 2007 the first sea vessel moored at the Giurgiulesti International Sea Port.

The registration of ships under the Moldovan Flag had been carried out even before, but only recently there were clearly elaborated and adopted legal acts setting forth the regulations for the respective  procedure. There have been approved the regulations on the procedure of sea vessels registration in Moldova and the activity of the Giurgiulesti Port Harbour Master’s Service.

There is a number of benefits in registering the vessel in Moldova. Here I will just list some of them:

- International recognition of the Republic of Moldova as a member of the International Maritime Organization and a party to multiple international conventions on sea navigation.

- A de facto flag of convenience without being listed as such.

- Lower costs of registration.

- Less bureaucratic, flexible and speedy registration procedure. 

- No limitation on the age of registered ships.

In recent years the number of see vessels registered in Moldova has significantly increased. More details about the registration procedures, necessary documents and the way of calculating the costs of the registration you can learn from the respective page on our firm's web-site.