World Bank concerned about Moldovan rural sector

The World Bank is concerned about the increase in poverty tendency in Moldova’s rural regions and insignificant evolutions in agriculture. The World Bank (WB) country manager for Belarus, Ukraine and RM, Paul Bermingham, made this statement, on Friday press conference. According to him, in order to overcome the created situation, the government is to undertake energy measures in improving the competitiveness of Moldovan goods, in developing agricultural markets, diversifying the markets and increasing the access to European Union markets. For this, in Bermingham’s opinion, the certification standards and systems have to be modernized. In order to improve the exports, WB official recommends making certain substantial investments in the infrastructure of the market and information systems. In his opinion, there is an urgent need of re-allocating governmental expenses into researches and rural infrastructure. Bermingham considered as inefficient the state subventions allocated to farmers, mentioning that these do not contribute to a sustainable growth. At the same time, the Bank’s representative considers that private farmers are more efficient and productive than the corporative ones. According to him, the transition to a market economy needs facilitating the continuous flow of lands from big farms to private ones. „Solving these problems in the agricultural sector would contribute greatly to reducing poverty in the rural areas,” the official also highlighted. Paul Bermingham mentioned that WB intends to work jointly with the Government and other donors in order to improve the access to international markets and providing farmers with services and abilities they need to become competitive. In 2006, WB will allot to Moldova credits worth 25 million dollars for reform in the field of health protection and implementation of the Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (SCERS). In 2007, the amount of WB assistance will increase up to 35-40 million dollars.