Members of Parliament from the Environment and Regional Development Commission Carried out Monitoring Visits to the Development Region South

Members of Parliament from the Environment and Regional Development Commission and advisors of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova are monitoring the implementation of state policies in the field of regional development and protection of the environment. In this context, they carried out on Wednesday, 28 February a number of monitoring visits in the Development Region South.

Members of parliamentary delegation expressed, thus, their intention of facilitating the dialogue with regional and local institutions, identifying development related challenges at regional level and optimising the efforts of state institutions at all levels to support fair and balanced development throughout the territory of the Republic of Moldova.

The parliamentary delegation began its visit with a trip to the Codreni-Sagaidacul Nou road from Cimișlia district -  one of the roads built by the RDA South in 2013, within an investment project financed from the National Fund for Regional Development.

On the spot, the director of the RDA South, Mrs Maria Culeşov, and the Mayor of Porumbrei village, Mrs Ioana Stoica, as direct beneficiary of this project, have informed the parliamentarians that, as a result of the implementation of this project, 4,84 km of macadam road enables connection of the L580 road to the M3 national route. Thus, it ensures the access of final beneficiaries to the M3 route and improves the access of the passengers and goods to and from 13 villages from Cimislia and Basarabeasca districts.

Another place, visited by the members of the Parliamentary Committee for Environment and Regional Development, was the drinking water pumping station in Ecaterinovca village, Cimislia district, the construction of which was carried out within the project:" Capital Repair of the Sewerage System, the Pumping and the Purification Stations in Cimișlia town: the construction of the Sewerage System, the Pumping Stations and the Reconstruction of the Water Supply Systems in Ecaterinovca village". The project provided Ecaterinovca village, with water supply and sewerage system; 9.5 km of aqueduct; 7,4 km of sewerage network and 2 pumping stations, thus, solving the problem of water supply and sewerage services for 1134 citizens.

Further, the members of the parliamentary commission visited the Regional Development Agency (RDA) South and discussed with the Agency's employees about the achievements and development plans for the priority sectors of the regional development. In this context, the Director of the RDA South, Mrs Maria Culeşov, informed the members of Parliament on the specifics of Agency's work and on most important results achieved in the field of regional development in the Southern Development Region during 2011-2017.

Therewith, the director of the RDA South mentioned that in 2017, the RDA South implemented 5 projects funded from the National Fund for Regional Development (NFRD). The total cost of these projects is about 40.6 million MDL. For the current year, 31, 2 million MDL is allocated for the implementation of 7 regional development projects in the Region South. Mrs Maria Culeşov specified that the Agency also implements projects financed from external sources.

In addition, the Director of the RDA South talked to the parliamentarians about the needs of the Development Region South for the achievement of the set objectives for the next years, specifically, balanced and sustainable development. The deputies were also informed about the challenges faced by the Agency in the project implementation process. The director of the main project implementation institution is calling for the involvement of the highest ranking deputies, as legislators, in solving the stringent problem of increasing allocations made from the state budget to the NFRD from 1% to 2-3%.

In the second part of the day, the members of the parliamentary committee visited other several regional development projects, implemented by the RDA South in Căușeni district. The first stop was made at the "Access Road to Alexei Mateevici Memorial Museum in Zaim Village, Căuşeni District" project, where the mayor of the village, Mr Ion Veste told to the deputies about the importance of this investment from the NFRD for the locality.

The parliamentarians had also the opportunity to visit the greatest multifunctional sports complex in the country, Youth and Sport Center Căuşeni, built within the "Strengthening the Regional Cooperation Between Căuşeni, Cimişlia, Ştefan Vodă Districts, Increasing of the Competitiveness in Promoting Healthy Lifestyle, Training of Performance Athletes and Providing Services in Sport Tourism by Constructing a Youth and Sport Center in Căuşeni" regional project, financed from the National Fund for Regional Development and the Căușeni district budget and implemented by the Regional Development Agency South.

Together with the local public administration of Căuşeni district, the members of the Comission for Environment and Regional Development visited the construction site of the "Construction of the Sewerage in The Traian Valley Sector and Modernization of the Treatment Plant in Căuşeni " project, being in progress since 2017, financially supported by the NFRD.

Talking about the impact of the investments that Căușeni district benefits due to the allocations from the National Fund for Regional Development, Mr Nicolae Gorban, the president of Căuşeni district, underlined the major importance of this project that leads to improvement of the utilities infrastructure, of the quality of the environment and of the living conditions of the citizens.

The Members were accompanied by the head of the Relations with Regional Development Institutions Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment, Mr Eduard Ungureanu, the representatives of the project "Modernization of the Local Public Services in the Republic of Moldova" (MLPS), the DFID experts and Parliament consultants.

The visit of the Environment and Regional Development Commission of the Parliament to the Centre Development Region took place with MLPS project support.

The project 'Modernization of Local Public Services in the Republic of Moldova' (MLPS) is implemented by the German Development Cooperation through GIZ in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment and is financially supported by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the European Union, the Romanian Government, the Swedish Government and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).