The first €60 million installment of the €150 million loan offered by Romanian to Moldova will be used to implement development projects. The money also enables the Government to unblock procurement proceedings. This was stated by Finance Minister Octavian Armasu at a joint meeting with his Romanian counterpart Anca Dragu, IPN reports.
The loan is intended as a general-purpose budget support, says Armasu, meaning it will be used to cover all the State Budget spending lines. “While until today, budget spending was limited to basic expenditure: salaries, pensions and minimal expenses to keep the government functional, as of today we can already fund development projects, such as road rehabilitation. Now all the procurement proceedings are unblocked and, within the budget adopted (for this year), we can afford to finance all the projects”, stated Octavian Armasu.
He further declared that every effort will be made to ensure maximum transparency for how the money is being spent, adding that independent experts will be invited to assess the degree of Moldova’s budget transparency.
Romanian Finance Minister Anca Dragu said that had this loan came before Moldova started its reforms and achieved certain results, “this would have meant a difficult situation for all”. “It wouldn’t have helped the restoration of confidence. This is a very important element – the confidence the Government in Chisinau enjoys domestically and externally to be able to make investments. As you well know, there’s no investment in unstable economic and political environments”, stated Anca Dragu.
The two officials said the remaining two installments could arrive in Moldova in 2017. The loan is offered for a period of 5 years at a rate of 1.5% per annum.
