Moldovan minister says economic downturn overcome despite "difficult legacy"
Moldovan State Minister Victor Bodiu today participated in a roundtable entitled Regional Policy on Economic Crisis Management in South-Eastern Europe and Central Asia held in Chisinau on 6-7 July, the government's press service has said.
The event is organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Regional Centre for Public Administration Reform. It is attended by experts from Moldova, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Greece, Estonia, etc.
Bodiu thanked the organizers for the initiative to hold the event, noting that the exchange of experience and knowledge in this sector was necessary and useful.
The minister revised the actions the government has taken since September 2009 to overcome the financial crisis.
"The former government hushed up the truth about the impact of the financial crisis on Moldova for electoral reasons. When we came to power, we found a difficult legacy, with the budgetary deficit forecast in 2009 exceeding 16 per cent of the GDP," Bodiu said.
He noted that the government took a string of actions, launched reforms, managed to sign an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, and in March 2010, it presented the programme Rethink Moldova which enjoyed the support of development partners.
"All these actions brought about results. In the first quarter of 2010, the GDP went up by 4.7 per cent and budgetary incomes by 12 per cent. The second quarter is expected to be even better," Bodiu said.
Bodiu said that besides steps taken to overcome the economic downturn, Moldova also took steps to get closer to the European Union. Negotiations on a Moldovan-EU association agreement were launched in January, whereas talks on a liberalized visa regime for Moldovans started on 15 June 2010.
The permanent representative of the UNDP Moldova, Matilda Dimovska, said that the states from the region, including Moldova, had the necessary experience and knowledge to cope with the financial crisis. It noted that Moldova managed to launch many reforms during the crisis, which led to economic stabilization. Dimovska expressed confidence that the roundtable would ease the exchange of experience and knowledge among the regional states and would help identify the best solutions to crises of this kind.
Moldpres
Comments