Moldovan prime minister: Food safety is Government's major concern

Chisinau, 8 September /MOLDPRES/ – Prime Minister Pavel Filip visited today the National Agency for Food Safety (ANSA) and the Republican Veterinary Diagnosis Center (CRDV). Prime Minister wanted to know personally the capacity and problems faced by laboratories, especially in the context of danger spread the virus of African swine fever, which occurred in Ukraine regions, located in close proximity to the borders of the Republic of Moldova, the government’s communication and media relations department has reported.

The PM said that he made this decision in a context of alert to responsible institution in this area, taking into account the risk level to human health in Moldova, as well as branches of national economy.

Pavel Filip familiarized with laboratory work and talked to employees, where he wondered on institution’s equipment, also ability to meet the food safety challenges, including preventing the spread of the African swine virus fever in Moldova.

The authorities’ officers in charge mentioned that Moldova had modern equipment, which met all international standards and all appropriate measures to be taken to prevent occurrence of critical situations in the field.

Later, the Prime Minister had a discussion with ANSA employees, at the institution about their tasks facing the problems they faced and how to solve them.

Pavel Filip said that in the last half year, the image of the institution was improved, also recorded many achievements, but there are many drawbacks. The prime minister was referring to the need to increase the capacity of specialized institutions, including their salaries. In this context, Pavel Filip said that this problem has had the Government’s attention and will be addressed in all its complexity.

Also, the Prime Minister spoke about the government measures taken to this end, noting that after the restoration of relations with development partners, there is a need to concentrate efforts to implement reforms to ensure the rule of law and an attractive business environment, system stability banking, promoting reform in social insurance, and public administration.

The Premier also emphasized on importance of effective communication between responsible institutions for food safety in Moldova, including institutions abroad, but also to inform appropriately the population to protect the health of our citizens and to prevent risks in this area.

The National Agency for Food Safety is the administrative authority with national activity responsible for implementing state policy to regulate and control food safety and veterinary field, animal husbandry, plant protection and phytosanitary quarantine, control of seeds, primary products quality, food and feed.

(Editor M. Jantovan)