The new ministers of economy and environment Dumitru Alaiba and Iordanca-Rodica Iordanov took an oath of office at the Presidential Palace on Friday, IPN reports.

In the event, President Maia Sandu thanked the ministers who vacated these posts for their efforts. “It is not easy to assume responsibility for almost non-functional institutions after years of undermining of the state and of badly managed personnel employment, promotion and motivation policies. Changes are necessary and they should be made on time. As they say, the right people in the right positions,” stated the official.

According to President Sandu, this year the Government had to cope with many challenges as the impact of crises is so severe that authorities’ resources are not sufficient to alleviate their effects. “We are here not only to extinguish fires. We are here to put the country on the right course. We must make substantial progress in the transformation of the country into authentic democracy, based on the rule of law and with functional institutions that will work in the interests of all the citizens. We need to lay the basis of a healthy economy. We must not deal only with crises and leave strategic issues aside,” said Maia Sandu.

Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița said that in these difficult times, the Government should accelerate its actions in priority areas. “During a period of 15 months, we managed to handle a number of overlapping crises and to lay the basis for long-term reforms. We yet need to devote increased attention to several key areas so that we pass well this winter and manage to irreversibly anchor Moldova in the European family,” stated the Premier.

MP Dumitru Alaiba took over the Ministry of Economy in the place of Sergiu Gaibu, who tendered his resignation two days ago. Rodica Iordanov, who served as secretary of state at the Ministry of Environment, replaced Iuliana Cantaragiu, who also resigned earlier. So far the Ministry of Environment was managed by Minister of Agriculture Vasile Bolea on an interim basis.