Moldova to be divided into six development regions

Moldova will be divided into six development regions – North, Centre, South, ATU Gagauzia, Transnistria and Chisinau municipality. Parliament passed a bill on this issue on Friday, December 15. According to the bill, the development regions will not be administrative-territorial units and will not be legal entities. The regions can constitute sub-regions. The Centres of the development regions shall be determined by the National Regional Development Coordinating Council, at the proposal of the regional development councils. The project also establishes the way of interregional cooperation, institutional framework, specific policy instruments for regional development and determines the necessary resources to create regional development. Vitalie Vrabie, Minister of Local Public Administration, stated that the need for such a territorial division results from the last EGPRSP monitoring report that found the lack of any result in the field of regional development. As he states, this concept of regional development is a result of the policies promoted by a large number of EU member states. The EU countries considers the regional approach to the social-economic development as an effective basis for a sustainable development and economic growth, which enables to optimally use the resources and capacities, and also to attract funds and important investments, says Vrabie. Minister mentioned that formation of such a structure does not imply certain costs on the part of Moldova, and the technical assistance will be provided under the EU TACIS (EURDIB). The Centre will be the largest region, based on the number of population, including over 987,000 inhabitants, followed by North region – about 970,000. In this regard, Gagauzia will be the smallest region comprising over 155,000 residents.