Government opens public debate on Action Plan for implementing NDP

The second stage of the public debates on the formulation of the National Development Plan (NDP) of Moldova for 2008-2011 will be held in September-November. It will center on the drafting of the Action Plan that will include accurate costs for every priority stipulated in the draft strategy. The place and date when the public discussions will open will be announced in the near future. The Government intends to invite experts and specialists from different areas of the civil society, representatives of the public administration and academic environment, businessmen and partners for development to the consultations. During the first stage of the discussions over the NDP’s draft strategy held in all the regions of Moldova several months ago, the Government aimed to identify “What” to include in the main strategic development document of Moldova. But the second stage will center on the costs and ways of financing the NDP. At the same time, it is planned to carry out a large campaign to promote the NDP through mass media: TV and radio programs, informative materials in the press. All the relevant information will be available on the websites www.pnd.md and www.scers.md. Twenty-five public discussions were organized in 11 towns and villages of the country, including the municipalities of Chisinau and Balti, during the first stage. Over 1,500 persons from 27 districts took part in the open discussions. The civil society submitted about 100 proposals and suggestions on the improvement of the NDP to the Government. A part of the proposals were accepted and will be included in the final version of the document. The strategy of the NDP will be finalized and approved by the Government by October 15. Afterwards, it will be submitted to the Parliament for approval. The Action Plan will be approved only by the Government. A National Forum will be organized when the NDP will be ready. The forum will sum up all the activities carried out to formulate the Plan. The National Development Plan is a logical continuation of the reforms initiated under the Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy and the EU-Moldova Action Plan, which must be implemented by December 2007 and by January 2008 respectively. Taking into account the experience of the previous years, when there were set too many objectives and they could not be covered financially, the Government has reduced the number of priorities to five: consolidation of a modern democratic state based on the principle of supremacy of the law; settlement of the Transnistrian conflict and the country’s reunification; enhancement of national economy’s competitiveness; development of human resources, improvement of employment rate and promotion of social inclusion and regional development.