The British Embassy launches the UK Good Governance Fund in Moldova. This will support the anticorruption measures and measures to improve the business environment, the justice sector reform and the development of independent mass media, said Simon McDonald, Permanent Under Secretary and Head of the Diplomatic Service of the UK, who is in Moldova on his first visit, IPN reports.

Simon McDonald told a news conference that the fund was launched by the Prime Minister of the UK at the Riga Eastern Partnership Summit in 2015 and is designed to support the implementation of reforms. The UK wants to have safe and stable neighborhood. “We will support the states to launch and implement harsh, but necessary reforms. The Republic of Moldova needs irreversible reforms in such areas as justice, health and finance. The banking system must be consolidated so as to avoid a new fraud,” stated the British official.

According to him, the British Embassy is working out a set of projects for 2016-2017 and £4 million (over 110 million lei) will be allocated for their implementation. Within the projects, they will cooperate with the National Bank of Moldova so as to improve the banking sector and with civil society in order to improve the media sector. “We think that civil society and the mass media play a key role in promoting reforms. Moldova is not left alone in the reformation process, but the provided assistance depends on the fulfillment of the assumed commitments,” said Simon McDonald.

British Ambassador in Chisinau Phil Batson said the UK Good Governance Fund supports four more states besides Moldova. These are Ukraine, Georgia, Serbia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina. The fund will provide assistance in five areas of interest: modernization and liberalization of the banking system; justice sector reform; improvement of the business sector; corruption combating and consolidation of the independent mass media.

The diplomat noted that the British Embassy will soon announce a call for new projects that it will support. In Moldova, the Embassy cooperates with the World Bank, the EBRD and EIB in implementing projects. So far it supported 21 projects that were successfully completed or are yet under implementation.

Minister of Economy Octavian Calmac told the same news conference that Moldova’s participation in the Good Governance Fund represents a new level of the bilateral relations. The sectors that will benefit from assistance are sensitive for the country and need to be reformed. The maximal utilization of the benefits of the DCFTA with the EU is a priority for the government.