The government in Chisinau has no leeway and has to accept the conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund for signing a new memorandum. The implementation of these conditions should be the price for getting Moldova out of the crisis and as a result of these reforms, the government leaders must pay by withdrawing from politics. The statement was voiced by expert Igor Botan during a public debate on the topic “The economical and political importance of Moldova’s Agreement with the IMF and the political ability to implement it”, the 58th in the series “Developing political culture through public debates”, organized by IPN Press Agency in partnership with Radio Moldova.
The expert wants the government to accept the IMF’s requirements and this would be the payment for what it did during the last 7 years. “We, as citizens, must know the contents of the IMF Memorandum. The surprise will be for us that the cornered government leadership will have to accept the harshest conditions, I think. The surprise will be what the agreement stipulates regarding the optimization of budgetary expense and the pension fund”, said Igor Botan.
According to him, Moldovan leaders wanted to have their hands untied before the parliamentary elections in 2014 and weren’t interested in a serious relationship with the IMF. After they won a new mandate, they had to deal with the “theft of the billion” and its aftermath. “The current governing party and its coordinator had to clean the political arena of those whom they made scapegoats. It wasn’t a good time for reforms and negotiations with the IMF. After they gained complete power and control of the regulatory and law enforcement bodies, now they have no leeway in the negotiations with the IMF. Considering the latter’s potential requirements, the biggest problem is the banking system, which needs to undergo major changes, especially regarding the transparency of shareholding”, explained Botan.
In his opinion, the biggest issue is that Moldovan citizens don’t know the conditions of the potential IMF agreement, although some things can be deduced from the government’s actions. “Given the bad position of the government, I don’t think it’s a good time for them to start the reform of the central or local public administration or of the pension fund system. These are difficult reforms. Just look at this government, it is barely breathing and it’s announcing extraordinarily complex reforms it didn’t implement during so many years”, declared the expert.
The public debate about “The economical and political importance of Moldova’s Agreement with the IMF and the political ability to implement it” was the 58th in the IPN series “Developing political culture through public debates”, organized with the support of German Foundation Hanns Seidel.
