The implementation of the EU’s LEADER program must become an essential condition for promoting rural development in Moldova. Thus, local action groups must be created to attract different projects to develop rural economy. In a press club meeting at IPN, the executive director of the Foreign Policy Association (APE) Victor Chirila and coordinator of the Functional Market Economy Department of the Institute for Development and Social Initiative “Viitorul” Viorel Chivriga said the experience of other states, such as Estonia, could help Moldova in this regard.
The LEADER program is an approach that opens up new rural development opportunities by helping to identify local needs. “The LEADER program is a very good instrument for engaging the local entrepreneurs and local public authorities in community development. The program envisions the creation of local action groups that will actually implement the program,” said the APE executive director Victor Chirila director.
“Through the agency of these groups, we want changes to be made as regards local entrepreneurship, efficient economic activities in the agricultural sector. We also refer to non-agrarian activities that should appear, first of all service provision ones,” stated Viorel Chivriga.
The local action groups work based on strategies thought up by the central and local public authorities together with civil society. “LEADER created a European network. The local action groups are able to communicate between them, to exchange experience and to attract new resources, benefiting from partnerships,” stated Victor Chirila.
According to him, the money from which the groups will benefit will not come only from the state budget, but also from different European funds in the form of projects. “The people who will form part of the local action groups must realize that they can do changes themselves and should not wait for instructions from the central level to change something in their community,” said the APE director.
The speakers gave the example of Estonia, where 26 local action groups were created within the LEADER program so far. These cover 99% of the rural communities in Estonia. A group of Moldovan experts and representatives of the Ministry of Aeroculture and Food Industry paid a fact-finding visit to Estonia within which they established contacts with representatives of the LEADER network. As a result of the visit, seminars to inform the public opinion about the essence and opportunities of this program will be staged in Moldova.
The informing and experience exchange with other states represent the first step in the implementation of the LEADER program. Afterward, the central authorities will draw up the legal framework for implementing it.
The press club meeting was held within the project “Strengthening the institutional capacities of local authorities in the area of rural development” that is implemented by the APE with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia.
