[Info-Prim Neo article from the series “2011: how it was and how it wasn’t”] 2011 was the year when regional development projects started to be implemented. Twenty-one of the 26 projects launched are financed through the National Regional Development Fund, while the other five are financed with foreign funds, said Minister of Regional Development and Construction Marcel Raducan, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. “We work with a number of foreign donors that expressed readiness to provide consultative and financial assistance in implementing regional development projects and in training specialists of the regional development agencies and other players involved in these projects,” said the minister. The assistance attracted to regional development projects this year amounted to €18 million. “We continue to work with the German Agency for International Cooperation and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. The partners from Romania help us. We cooperate with USAID and, surely, the European Commission, through its organizations and funds. We established ties with the Office of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region. We actively and permanently cooperate with the EU Delegation to Chisinau, which helps us to improve the capacities of the institutions involved in regional development,” said Marcel Raducan. Among the most important regional development projects, the minister mentioned the construction of a bridge over the Cogilnic River and the creation of a waste collection platform in southern Moldova. The National Regional Development Fund for next year will include 174 million lei (1% of the state budget revenues).