Government counts on private investment in road building and maintenance

The Government expressed its readiness to examine any commercial offer from private investors willing to invest in the construction and maintenance of roads. At a meeting with representatives of the industrial sector on August 9, Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev said that the Cabinet counts on the private investment in this project, even though the international financial organisations have already provided resources. “Evidently, there is no golden fish and the magic movement exists only in fairytales,” said Vasile Tarlev referring to the implementation of the road rehabilitation programme in Moldova. The Premier said that the modernisation and repair of the national roads is very costly. According to him, the 99-kilometre long road Chisinau – Leuseni is set to be completed by September 10, 2007. A kilometre of road with two lanes costs the state budget not less than 6 mln lei. Vasile Tarlev also said that the state started to allocate money for repairing the roads, in addition to the resources of the Road Fund, from 2006. The resources earmarked earlier for maintaining the roads, according to the Premier, was used only to patch potholes and to “launder money”. The Government intends to implement important projects to resurface such roads as Cimislia- Comrat, Causeni – Palanca, Orhei – Rezina, Chisinau-Balti, Chisinau-Cimislia, and Valea Perjei- Cimislia. The authorities announced that this year they allocated about 1 bln lei from the state budget for repairing the roads of the country. Also, US$100 mln in credits was attracted for the same purposes from the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank. Experts estimate the cost of Moldova’s roads at US$12 bln. About half of the roads in the country are damaged and require repair.