Foreign donors to grant USD 600 mln to Moldova

A half of those USD 1.2 bln promised by European Union together with the international financial bodies and foreign donors to Moldova will be allotted as grants, the PM Vasile Tarlev stated on Wednesday, December 13. According to him, the other half will be offered to Moldova as long term credits with an interest rate not exceeding 1.5% per year. The funds will be used for the efficient implementation of the EU-Moldova Action Plan and the Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and will be directed with priority towards the realization of projects in the field of judiciary system reform implementation, public administration, education and healthcare reform, infrastructure, new workplaces in the social system, rural sector development. Vasile Tarlev mentioned that financial resources will be oriented for financing all types of projects: both state-run and social or private ones. According to the Premiere, the state is searching for a credit line of about USD 100 mln in order to accord long term credits to wine producers, given the difficulties related to the export of their production. The PM, promised that all the finances received from donors will be accorded “openly and transparently” in order to exclude the experience of the last years, when cheap credits from foreign donors “were vanishing in the sand”. The sum of USD 1.2 bln is greater than the total amount of financial assistance offered to Moldova by international donors over the past 10 years, since the last meeting of the Consultative Group of donors for Moldova. The European Union together with the international financial bodies, including World Bank and International Monetary Fund as well as foreign donors decided to allot over USD 1.2 bln as financial assistance to Moldova, in Brussels, on Tuesday, December 12.