Government says average wage went up by 29% and the pension – by 15.5%

The Government says that the average month wage in the national economy constituted MDL 1636.4 in January-October 2006, increasing by 15% compared with the similar period of the last year. The average wage constituted MDL 1779.7 in October 2006 (by 29% more compared with October 2005). The average wage in the budgetary sector amounted to MDL 1597.7 and in the real sector to – MDL 1996.7. At the same time, the average pension was MDL 443 on October 1, 2006, by 15.5% more compared with October 1, 2006. These data are included in the report of the Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev on the implementation of the government programme “Modernisation of the country – welfare of the people” in 2006. The text of the report was sent to Info-Prim Neo after it could not be presented in the Parliament on December 22. According to the report, for the financing of capital investments included in the National Programme “Moldovan Village”, about MDL 600 mln were allotted from the State Budget. Of them, MDL 30.8 mln were directed for the repair of access roads to the rural localities; for the repair of local roads – MDL 24.8 mln; national roads – MDL 130.8 mln. MDL 150 mln were transferred for the construction, modernisation and repair of the water supply systems and sewerage systems; for the construction of natural gas distribution systems – MDL 77.6 mln; for the modernisation and strengthening of hospitals, emergency medical institutions – MDL 62.3 mln, for the Culture Houses, libraries and museums – over MDL 22.9 mln; and for anti-erosion and soil protection – MDL 21.3 mln. 15 towns and 30 rural localities were supplied with drinking water and 87 localities were provided with natural gas supply networks. On the whole, natural gas networks had been constructed in 640 localities during 2001 – 2006. According to the report, about 98% of the children studying in primary grades, 100% from socially-vulnerable families and 30.9% of the students of the Lower Secondary grades are offered free of charge food at the schools’ eating places. Networks, Optic fibres and 1729 phone stations for the access to Internet were installed in the pre-higher education institutions in 2006 within the educational programme “SALT” aiming at providing access to internet to all pre-higher education institutions. 749 pre-higher education institutions were offered at least one classroom with computers, the rest of the institutions – at least one computer. The total number of the internet connexions increased by 54.4% compared with the same period of the last year, exceeding the figure of 344.6 thousand. In another context, the Government states that the labour force market is directly influenced by the obvious disequilibrium in economy and social life. On one hand, many fields have insufficient labour force but on the other hand there is a surplus of unsolicited labour force. According to the Government, 32.9 thousand workplaces had been created in the first 11 months of 2006. In this way, the rate of unemployment constituted 5.4%. This situation is due to the introduction of new technologies and production lines and resuming the work of some factories from the rural zones. At the same time, Tarlev says that the goal of the Government is to create 300 thousand new workplaces in all the fields of the national economy up to the level of USD 300. Vasile Tarlev was interrupted by several protester opposition MPs when presenting the report at the sitting of the Parliament. They explained their behaviour by the fact that the government party did not accept the proposal on the creation of a committee for the examination of what they called violations at the implementation of the Audiovisual Code in the reorganisation process of the municipal stations “Antena C” and “Euro TV Chisinau”.