For the Republic of Moldova to have high-value agriculture competitive with that of the countries of the European community, emphasis should be shifted from raw material to the development of the value chain, which the processing process, Iurie Scripnic, secretary of state of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, stated in a public debate hosted by IPN.

“Agriculture has always been a strategic sector for the state, but less attention was devoted to this area and to support. At present, the current administration, starting from the President, Parliament, the government, cooperates in unions for switching over from words to deeds and accomplishments as more than 20% of the country’s population work in agriculture and the agro-industrial sector makes the most important contribution to the formation of the GDP of the Republic of Moldova. Furthermore, the possibility of creating new jobs will lead to the revitalization of villages,” stated Iurie Scripnic.

As regards the actions taken by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry to attract investors, Iurie Scripnic said the authorities do their best to make progress in implementing policies, harmonizing the internal legislation to the international one and attracting foreign donors. “At the Ministry, we weekly assess the made progress together with division heads and persons involved in the harmonization of the legislation. A number of 70 normative documents are to be brought in compliance with the EU’s legislation and this will be done by autumn,” stated Iurie Scripnic.

He noted that a US$55 million lending agreement for the agricultural sector was signed with the World Bank on June 5. A part of this money will be used to develop the irrigation sector as this will enhance the competitiveness of the agricultural sector. “We do not have high-value agriculture and we do not have proper irrigation as in the 1990s we irrigated 300,000 hectares of land, while now irrigate only 7,000-8,000 hectares. We surely cannot become competitive when productivity per hectare is not comparable with that obtained in the EU. The fact that we have drought once in two years shows that we must invest in irrigation,” noted the functionary.

Iurie Scripnic also said that the responsibility for using the credit of trust given to Moldova as a result of the EPC Summit and of the granting of the EU candidate status should be used with maximum seriousness by the state institutions and also by the business community.

The public debate entitled “EPC Summit – opportunities opened up for high-value agriculture and export of Moldovan products” was the eighth installment of IPN’s project “Support for European Integration by stimulating discussion in the mass media about the European Political Community (EPC) Summit” that is supported by Soros Foundation Moldova.