Premier visits city in western Moldova

Chisinau, 6 February /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Minister Ion Chicu today went to the western Ungheni city, where he had a discussion with representatives of the district public authorities, mayors of the district’s settlements and the heads of the de-concentrated services, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.  

Ion Chicu started by informing about the activities scheduled by the cabinet of ministers for 2020 and the goals of the government’s Action Plan for 2020-2023. “We pay special attention to the communication with the local public authorities (APL). Without cooperation, we will not manage to solve the country’s problems. We have planned massive investments in the infrastructure and the management of these investments is up to us,” the prime minister said.

The PM referred to the state of the national economy, results of the 2019 year and January this year. “Despite the political crises from 2019, with two electoral campaigns and three governments, the national economy proved maturity. The budget deficit was of only 1.4 per cent and the public debt to Moldova’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was decreased by 1.9 per cent and is one of the lowest in the region. In January 2020, by about 565 million lei or 15 per cent more was collected to the national public budget than in January 2019,” Ion Chicu noted.   

The prime minister explained the public investments in the road infrastructure, in the networks of aqueduct and sewerage, in the energy infrastructure and streets’ illumination.”We need stable jobs all over the country. We must attract investments into the industrialization of the country’s districts, in order to bring jobs close to people’s homes. We should develop the settlements – only in this way, we can preserve the young people at home or cease the leaving, as well as return those who left. The people will live well in Moldova, when they have stable work and good living conditions.”     

About one billion lei was allocated for the construction of roads in settlements and the sums will be provided according to criteria taking into account the number of residents. The tenders for the contracting of works for construction of roads have been launched.  

Ion Chicu urged mayors to follow the quality of the carrying out of works, signal the problems noticed. He said that the works of roads’ construction would not start and would not end without the mayors’ signature.

The PM unveiled information on projects on construction of water mains, programme on illumination of streets in settlements (about 140 million lei), which implies the illumination of 1 km of street in each settlement and the issue of liquidating unauthorized waste deposits.  

„We should not turn the country into dump. In this way, we will lose young people quicker and will not have tourists. We have financing worth about 100 million euros from partners for the construction of infrastructure for the collection and processing of waste. Yet, I believe that we should put things in order and impose sanctions against those who do not respect the neighbours and the settlements where they live,” Ion Chicu said.     

The APL representatives tackled the subject on the lack of the irrigation infrastructure for the needs of the agriculture, public passenger transport, financing of the local public authorities, nourishment of children in kindergartens and schools, insufficiency of young specialists in the education and health sectors, public order in settlements, subsidization of small farms and other topics.    

The prime minister referred to the extension of the First Home programme, with intention to persuade young teachers, physicians and policemen to work in Moldova’s settlements. “All children must benefit from quality education; all people should have access to medical services and public order must be ensured everywhere. Through the First Home programme, we want to create maximally simple conditions for young teachers, physicians, policemen to buy a house. And given that a car is now a need for young people, to buy a vehicle. We should proceed from the reality; we will preserve the young people, only if we provide good conditions,” the prime minister said.    

PM Ion Chicu received in audience residents of the Ungheni district and visited a factory of carpets from the Ungheni municipality.

The Ungheni district comprises 33 mayoralties, including the Ungheni municipality. The Ungheni city has more than 30,000 residents and the district’s population exceeds 100,000 residents.   

The enterprise with state capital, Lear Corporation Ltd, works in the Ungheni Free Economic Zone, and deals with the manufacturing of vehicle covers, with about 700 employees.   

The company Ungheni Vin (wines’ production), stock company Ecovit (production of canned goods and juices), the can factory Cereal-Prut stock company, the limited companies Danova-Prim and Moldabela (carpets producer) work in the Ungheni district’s industrial sector.