Moldovan parliament discusses government's activity report

Chisinau, 11 May /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Minister Pavel Filip presented the government’s activity report for 2017 in parliament today.  

The PM thanked the lawmakers for the support provided for the government’s work, as well as for the package of laws passed in 2017.

“Beyond figures and concrete actions, we have several important indexes, which show us that we go in the right direction; yet, at the same time, that time is ripe to make bigger, quicker steps, so that people feel more substantive improvements of the daily life. After the 2016 year, when we managed to economically stabilize the country, in 2017, we laid foundations of reform processes, and in 2018, we start building. In the direct and figurative senses. Therefore, I came before the MPs today to unveil a report in which we do not boast, but rather to inform you about certain developments, so that you have a correct picture when we discuss and that you may come up with constructive proposals. At the same time, I will take advantage of this occasion to address to citizens today as well. I want them to know that, although have relatively positive developments in these two years, we have not taken our ease with these achievements. We know quite clearly where work is still to be done. And we will do it in continuation. So that everybody feels concrete changes,” Filip said.      

The prime minister reviewed the achievements got by the cabinet in the last year, among which: central public administration reform, which led to a cut in the number of ministries, creation of the Public Services Agency, by the merger of five institutions, and so the citizens benefit from a single window of 1,000 public services.

“We have managed to have a 4.5-per cent economic growth last year, the average salary on the economy grew by 12 per cent up to 5,700 lei, and exceeded 6,000 this year. Yes, we know that the situation is not in the least just as we want it to be. Yet, data shows that the economy is recovering. In 2017, the exports increased by almost 20 per cent. Sixty five per cent of all exports go the European Union. In the first three months of this year alone, the exports increased by one third. These positive developments allowed us asking the European Union to increase the quotas for the export in table grapes, plums and sweet cherries to the European market. The agricultural production last year grew by 8.6 per cent. We also backed farmers and the subsidization fund reached up to 900 million lei, by over 200 million lei more. This support, as well as the modern technologies yielded fruits. We a have a record production of wheat for the last year, four tons per one hectare on average, and in the northern region, the harvest exceeded even six tons.  Such results have not been recorded in our country ever since 1990. We also paid attention to the IT sector, which generates the highest salary on the economy, 17,000 lei one average, which I hope motivate young people to remain at home and work in the national economy. We created the first virtual IT Park, which has already registered 170 resident companies, with sales planned of 1.4 billion lei for 2018. The government’s policies and initiatives, the single tax of seven percent and a simplified mechanism of reporting generated an increase in the export of Information Technology and Communications of almost 60 per cent last year. In 2017, the Tekwill Centre from Chisinau trained almost 8,000 persons, and in 2019, we might have a Tekwill in Balti and soon one in Cahul as well,” Filip noted.           

The prime minister during almost one hour answered questions put by MPs and gave assurances that a new fraud in the banking system would not occur. Filip added that the authorities still had much to work, even if a part of the social benefit had been increased, including the ones of physicians and teachers. The PM asked for the lawmakers’ support to adopt the needed legal framework.  

“In 2017, we provided social assistance to more than 200,000 people. Last year, we increased by 2,000 lei the one-off child-birth allowance, which reached 5,600 lei this year. We introduced allocations for mothers who give birth to twins, and starting from this year, children who remain without parental care will daily receive allowances from the state. We increased by 50 per cent the allowance for young specialists in medicine who go to work in villages, who will receive 45,000 lei each. We wanted to encourage, in the same way, young specialists in the education sector as well. About 1,300 young specialists benefited from the increase of these allowances up to 45,000 or, respectively, 36,000 lei, depending on the schools finished. I remind here also the increase in teachers’ salaries by 11.3 per cent beginning with September 2017,” Filip specified.    

The prime minister emphasized that he personally, as well as the cabinet he led were aware of the situation in Moldova and they set three priorities on which they will work in 2019-2021: education, justice and infrastructure.  

“The government should be criticized when it makes mistakes, as this motivates us to be better. Yet, I also publicly asked the opposition to put aside the political struggles and criticize us constructively, to come up with better solutions, when we do not do something well enough, to have public discussions about how things can be done better in the country,” Pavel Filip added.   

(Reporter A. Zara, editor A. Raileanu)