Romania to offer Moldova 150 million euros reimbursable loan

Chisinau, 22 September /MOLDPRES/ - Moldova will receive a credit amounting to 150 million euros, offered by Romania. The announcement was made during a briefing by Prime Minister Valeriu Strelet and his Romanian counterpart Victor Ponta, after the joint meeting of the two countries’ governments, held in Constanta, Romania, today, the government’s communication and media relations department has reported.

The members of the two Cabinets discussed the conditions of the Agreement on the refundable financial assistance worth 150 million euros over a period of five years, signed between Moldova and Romania. According to the document, the annual interest rate of the loan is 1.5 per cent.

"It is a difficult period in which Moldova currently finds itself, financially and in terms of budget, till it signs an agreement with the international financial institutions, International Monetary Fund, World Bank and European Commission, as we ourselves did in previous years. I think it is the duty and especially the strength of Romania that at a difficult time, we can be the first ones to say: yes, we are here, we can support you and we give you this repayable loan, under extremely advantageous conditions", Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta said.

For his part, Prime Minister Valeriu Strelet thanked the Romanian government for the constant and unbiased support offered to Moldova. "We appreciate the political decision to provide Moldova with reimbursable  financial aid, financial assistance repayable over a period of 5 years, with disbursement amounting to 60 million in 2015, on favourable terms, as mentioned by Prime Minister Ponta, with the mention that Moldova does not intend to spend this money in unproductive areas. We intend to revive investment projects, which were temporarily suspended on the grounds of the lack of budget support from development partners on whom we counted so much, in the context of certain periods of political instability and conditioned reforms", the Moldovan prime minister said.

The Romanian and Moldovan parliaments will subsequently discuss the agreement made between the two governments.

(Editor M. Jantovan)