Eighteen new gas pipelines are projected to be built until next summer. They will supply natural gas to more than 100 settlements in Rascani, Telenesti, Nisporeni, Cantemir and other districts. A sum of 80 million lei will be spent on construction, the Ministry of Economy and Trade said, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. During a meeting at the Economy Ministry, presidents and vice presidents of district councils pointed to a number of problems encountered in the gasification process such as the absence of gasification projects for villages that should be worked out by the mayors and the insufficient financial resources allocated from the state budget for gasification, which should be increased. Deputy Minister of Economy Tudor Copaci voiced hope that the local and central administrations and the economic entities will make concerted effort to gasify all the settlements of the country by yearend 2009, as stipulated in the National Gasification Project. Over 900 settlements (about 60%) of the existing 1,528 are now gasified. More than 5,000 kilometers of gas pipelines have been built from public money (over 1 billion lei).