The Republic of Moldova reached the 22nd year of independence. The IPN Agency decided to present the accomplishments and failures in the country’s development in a number of articles. Representatives of the current government, experts, former and current politicians stated their views on the steps taken by Moldova after August 27, 1991.
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Article No. 11 of the IPN series “Moldova-22. Steps forward and steps backward”, on the occasion of the Independence Day
During the first years of the proclamation of independence, the first national communications operators appeared in Moldova. The restrictions on access to fixed-line telephones were removed and modern technologies without which we cannot imagine contemporary life started to be implemented. The specialists in the field who were directly involved in the implementation process said it was both easy and difficult. In the world rankings, Moldova is among the countries with the highest Internet access speed, while the ICT sector contributes 9% of the GDP.
Radical reforms started in Moldova after the proclamation of independence
Minister of Information and Communications in 1992-1998 Ion Casian considers that the most important accomplishments in the ICT sector after the proclamation of independence was the creation of the Ministry of Information and Communications as a political body. Its task was to formulate ICT policies. Another important moment was the creation of national operators. Thus, Moldtelecom appeared in the ICT sector, in 1993, Posta Moldovei (Moldova’s Post Office) - in the postal sector, the National Radio-Communications Center – in radio-communications, and the National Informatics Center – in informatics.
The national operators were founded as economic entities whose purpose was to implement the policies worked out by the Ministry and to provide services for the population. There was instituted the modality of regulating the area by so-called biannual operation agreements that were signed by the operators and the Ministry.
Ion Casian said the third important component for the history of Moldova as an independent state was the creation of the tele- and radio-communications infrastructure and of the infrastructure for the postal sector and their integration into the regional and international community. “In that period Moldova joined the International Telecommunication Union, the Universal Postal Union, EUTELSAT and other international organizations that allowed recognizing Moldova as a state entity. Policies were formulated to fully satisfy the needs of the people/clients. In implementing these projects, Moldova was supported by the specialized administrations of Germany, Romania, Canada, and the U.S.,” said the former minister. The implementation of the digital platform was an important element of these projects. This process led to the appearance of mobile telephony, Internet and electronic mail.
Ion Casian said that after the proclamation of independence, the implementation of reforms in communications was an easy, but also hard process. “It was hard because the reforms were revolutionary. Strategies, programs and regulation policies were needed for implementing them. The human resources were also to be prepared,” stated the former minister.
According to Ion Casian, it was easy because every minister was responsible for the own sector and was free to take decisions.
Ion Casian said the ICT sector couldn’t be denationalized during his six-year-tenure. Under the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, Moldova is building market economy. “The market economy necessitates first of all the existence of private property, but in our county the private property is often regarded as something strange and is not supported by the state. Two attempts were made to reorganize and privatize Moldtelecom. This objective hasn’t been yet achieved,” said the former minister.
Moldova made significant progress in the ICT sector
Director of the E-Government Center Stela Mocan said that in its 22 years of independence Moldova made significant progress in the ICT sector. By implementing such e-Government projects as the Mobile Signature, the Governmental Electronic Payments Service Mpay, the governmental platform for hosting ICT systems and services (MCloud) and the governmental e-Registers and e-Authorizations platform, the e-transformation processes were facilitated at sector level by using intelligent technology. “The final objective is to provide all the public services online by 2020 so that the businessmen and the people spend less time at authorities’ offices. For its part, the Government must become more transparent and receptive and less corrupt. It’s good that more ministries are now submitting initiatives to use information technology in the provision of public services,” said Stela Mocan.
According to her, an important accomplishment is the fact that more than half of the households in Moldova have at least one computer connected to the Internet and one in two Moldovans uses the Internet. The general infrastructure in the sector is well developed all over the country so that a large number of users have access to services of a high quality. More and more Moldovans choose to make a career in the ICT sector. This shows that the sector has a great growth potential.
“Over 90% of the persons who ask for a criminal record, ask it in an electronic format. The utilization rate of the e-Licensing service is almost 35%. Over 4,000 Moldovans already use the mobile signature in the case of electronic services. In the near future, with the assistance of electronic payments, the access to public services will be much easier,” stated Stela Mocan.
Progress in ICT sector is appreciated at foreign level
Stela Mocan underlined that the e-Government processes launched in Moldova are appreciated at foreign level. The prizes “Best mGovernment”, “Best Cloud Project in Central & Eastern Europe”, for the solution “Cloud Computing-MCloud” and the prize for efficient contribution to promoting open governance provided by Transparency International place Moldova on the map of states that successfully promote intelligent technology.
The ICT sector of Moldova saw a number of important events, including the registration of the domain “moldova.su” in 1991, the appearance of the first Internet service providers in 1992 and the first registration of the domain “.md” in 1994.
Among the recent achievements are the approval by the executive of the strategic program on technological modernization of the government in September 2011, the joining of the Open Government Partnership in 2012, the launch of the single public services portal servicii.gov.md, the launch of the Mobile Signature and the celebration of the Cyber Security Week.
Stela Mocan said the future benefits that the Moldovan people will enjoy include the optimization of the Government’s internal work for making it more open to the people. She underlined that Moldova will not excel and will not be competitive in a digital world if it does not intelligently use the advantages of the modern technology. Only a smart Government outfitted with technology can meet the people’s needs rapidly and efficiently.
Alina Marin, IPN
august, 2013
