“Expert-Grup” analytical centre qualifies the implementation in 2005-2006 of the chapter “improvement of people’s welfare” included in the EU-Moldova Action Plan as a “regress”, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the centre’s experts, for the time being the Government has not publicised information about the implementation of EGPRPS (Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy) in 2006 and neither about the statistics referring to the poverty evolution for the last two years. Databases of the Household Incomes Survey, conducted by National Statistics Bureau, are inaccessible to the public as well. According to the cited source, the available incomes seem to be on increase. The real salaries in the first two months have significantly risen (12% in January and 11% in February 2007). On the other hand, several industrial branches are continuing to fail, which leads to a drop in real salaries of a large number of employees. In February, the Government increased allowances for birth from MDL 800 to MDL 1,000. This increase, though necessary, is not able to essentially contribute to the reduction of poverty among poor families with many children. A better solution would be to increase monthly allowances for maintaining children up to 3 year-old and improve timing of their allocation, experts say. Among the short-term priorities, “Expert-Grup” lists the completion and public debate of the 2006 Report on EGPRPS. Among the long-term actions, the experts specify the reduction of poverty among children and in rural area, by improving the agricultural sector, and reducing income gaps. To ensure a better living standard for children it is needed to boost matriculation in primary schools in rural areas with increased help from local public administration in raising awareness and informing parents, monitoring the relationship between children and parents that left abroad to work, improvement of nutrition for pupils and granting of direct aid (textbooks, footwear, clothes) to children coming from underprivileged families. The EU-Moldova Action Plan was signed in Brussels on February 22 and aims for a 3-year period.