The Parliament on Thursday, March 27, voted in favor of a new specialized central body – the Ministry of Construction and Territorial Development, Info-Prim Neo reports. The required amendments to the Government Law have been passed in an urgent manner, in first and second reading, on the initiative of President Vladimir Voronin, with the vote of the Communist parliamentary majority. The new body will take over the functions previously handled by the Agency for Construction and Territorial Development and the Water Agency “Apele Moldovei”. The new ministry’s functions will be to develop and promote state policies in the areas of territorial management and planning, urbanism, architecture, construction, water supply networks, etc. Following the amendments approved, the Standardization and Metrology Service (SSM) will be placed under the subordination of the Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MEC). A number of Opposition MPs strongly disagreed with this absorption and demanded that the provision be excluded from the draft, but failed to win the consent of the majority. The draft proposed by the President states that the new ministry is established for the purpose of optimizing the institutional and functional capacities of the central authorities, in light of the central administration reform and with a view to establishing clear delimitations between policy-making and policy implementation. Within 3 months, the Government is to submit to the Parliament proposals for bringing the adopted amendments in line with the laws in force, as well as with the Government’s normative acts.