Chisinau authorities intend to transform economic crisis into opportunity for development

The administration of the municipality of Chisinau aims to transform the economic crisis into an opportunity for development. Such an objective is set out in the plan for reducing the effects of the economic crisis and encouraging economic recovery in the capital city worked out by the Chisinau City Hall in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program, Info-Prim Neo reports. ”The main idea of the plan is to transform the economic crisis from a difficulty into an opportunity,” said the director of the Business Consulting Institute Mihai Roscovan. ”It is often the difficulties that give an impulse to the reforms that are postponed during more favorable periods,” he said. The document outlines a series of objectives, priorities and measures designed to help overcome the crisis and stimulate the sustainable development of the municipality of Chisinau, said Roscovan. According to the expert, the measures focus on four priorities: to raise budget revenues, to make the public services more efficient, to support the economic development, to develop the administrative capacities. The Plan of Anti-Crisis Measures had been formulated by a group of national and international consultants during three months. They included experts from Chisinau (Business Consulting Institute and Expert-Grup Center) and representatives of two consultancy companies working in Iasi and Bucharest (Advances and the Romanian Academic Society). Before working out the plan, a study was carried out to assess the impact of the recession on the economic and social development of the municipality, the risks and threats to the functioning of the public utilities (public transport, heat and water supply, etc.) and the work of the local public administration. Mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca said the municipal authorities during the next few years will use four important documents in their work: the General Urbanistic Plan, the Development Plan of Chisinau, the Functional Analysis of the Local Public Authorities and the Plan of Anti-Crisis and Economic Stabilization Measures. “The four documents will allow reducing the effects of the crisis and attracting more investments to Chisinau. The investments in the capital city now constitute 8 euros per capita, while in other post-Soviet countries – minimum 300 euros. Without investments, we will not be able to repair the roads and the piping systems and ensure decent living conditions,” Dorin Chirtoaca said. The Plan of Anti-Crisis Measures will be debated by the Chisinau Municipal Council and will then become an official document and a political platform for coordinating the main short and medium-term measures.