There are indicators in the Republic of Moldova showing that things go right. At the same time, they show that time has come to take bigger and faster steps for the people to feel more consistent improvements in life. After 2016 the economy of the country has been stabilized and the foundations of reform processes were laid in 2017. The development of the country started in 2018, Prime Minister Pavel Filip said when presenting the progress report for 2017 in Parliament on May 11, IPN reports.
The Premier reminded that the reform of the central public administration was launched last year. This led to the reduction in the number of ministries and of employees. But the salary fund remained the same and this enabled to pay competitive salaries and to stop the exodus of professionals from the Government. Over 100 million lei was saved by optimizing administrative costs. “The public administration reform will continue until 2020. The local administration reform is to be launched and the citizen’s interaction with the public services will be made simpler and more efficient,” stated Pavel Filip.
According to the Premier, following the reform of inspection bodies the public and private sectors annually save over 100 million lei and the business sector is now more predictable. The investments in the Free Economic Zones last year totaled US$ 115 million. The number of employees in these Zones rose by 65%. Almost 60,000 jobs were created in the economy. The data show the country’s economy has recovered. In the first three months of this year alone, exports increased by one third. These developments determined the authorities to ask for higher quotas on the export of table grapes, plums and cherries from the EU
Pavel Filip also said that the agricultural production last year grew by 8.6%. There was created the first virtual IT park with 170 resident companies, with planned sales of 1.4 billion lei in 2018. In 2017, the Tekwill Center in Chisinau trained almost 8,000 persons. A Tekwill Center is to be opened in Balti in 2019 and another one in Cahul later. The banking sector was in a disastrous state when it was taken over by the government, but things were brought in order with the support of the IMF.
The Premier also reminded that last year the Tax Service was reorganized and, as a result, the institution this March collected 1.2 billion lei in only two days. The Customs Service was also reorganized and the amounts collected into the 2017 budget as a result came to a record of over 20 billion lei, up 3 billion lei on 2016. The higher amounts collected enabled to increase the allocations for social and health programs, including for the pension reform. “In 2017, we provided social assistance to over 200,000 persons. We raised the one-time child birth benefit by 2,000 lei and introduced allowances for mothers who give birth to twins. From this year, the children who remained without parental care will daily receive allowances from the state,” said Pavel Filip.
He also said that two weeks ago there was examined the concept of the primary medical assistance reform by which they aim to increase the role of the family doctor, to solve the problem of shortage of doctors in villages and to improve the quality of medical services. The allowance for young health professionals who go to work in villages was raised by 50%. Teachers’ pays were increased by 11.3% last September. As from September 1 this year, the first graders will have a digital education course.
As to Moldova’s foreign policy, Pavel Filip noted that today Chisinau has an appropriate and efficient foreign policy. When he took up his duties at the Government, the IMF and the World Bank had frozen the relationship with Moldova, while the EU seconded had suspended financing. “We showed that we can work well under pressure. Last year we received positive appraisals from the IMF and this will soon disburse a new installment of US$ 35 million. Last year the EU put again its trust in us when it announced that it will offer €100 million in macro-financial assistance to our country,” stated the Premier.
Pavel Filip noted that the Government set three priorities for 2019 – 2021: education, justice and infrastructure. These envision a new view in education, the reformation of the legal system by assessing the integrity of judges and holding of these accountable if they break the law.
