Moldovan cabinet holds meeting

Chisinau, 8 July /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Minister Ion Chicu today chaired a cabinet meeting, with 34 subjects on the agenda, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.

In the beginning of the meeting, the PM asked the leadership of the Interior Ministry and Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment Ministry (MADRM) to make an assessment of the damages caused by the natural calamities from the last days, in order to provide immediate assistance to the people hit.

Minister Pavel Voicu said that, in the wake of the heavy rains, massive hail and wind, 21 settlements from 5 districts had been hit. Almost 60 km of local roads were destroyed, 59 households were flooded and 120 hectare of orchards, 23 hectares of vineyard and 20 hectares of maize were affected.   

Minister Ion Perju said that 2,500 hectares of lands with orchards and vineyards were hit in southern Moldova, where some of the lands - even at a level of 90 per cent. The territory affected does not have anti-hail system.   

The prime minister asked the finance minister to set up a working group which, during one week, is to find the best solutions to supply and protect the agriculture.  

„At present, the protection of the agriculture is made exclusively through insurance. There is no other way to provide support to those who suffered in the wake of the natural calamities. If needed, we will again rectify the state budget, in order to back the agriculture,’’ Ion Chicu said.   

Minister Viorica Dumbraveanu unveiled a draft on amendment of the government decision on the establishment of disability. The document sees digitalization of the procedure of submitting the documents, as well as the creation of an electronic register of the people with disabilities. Thus, the procedure of submitting acts, issuance of duplicates will be simplified and the quality and accessibility of residents to the public service will be improved.    

Another draft, worked out of the Health, Labour and Social Protection Ministry (MSMPS), sees possibility to demand through proxy the right to pension for age limit, disability pension and survivor’s pension. The necessity to made amendments results from many appeals received from people who, because of the health condition, cannot move to personally submit the application on retirement and the needed acts at the territorial social insurances body, in order to fulfill the right to pension. This refers also to the people who are abroad and who cannot return to Moldova to fulfill their right to pension, given the situation emerged because of the COVID-19 pandemic.        

Viorica Dumbraveanu proposed for approval and amendment a draft on the way of establishing and payment of the social benefit, which provides for enhanced measures for the disadvantaged families, which have children, through increasing the quantum of the minimally guaranteed monthly income from 50 per cent to 75 per cent, calculated for each child.    

Education, Culture and Research Minister Igor Sarov presented a draft which provides for the allocation of financial means worth 700,000 lei to local public administration authorities from 9 district centres (Anenii Noi, Criuleni, Falesti, Nisporeni, Ocnita, Rascani, Sangerei, Soroca, Ungheni), as well as Chisinau for supporting the district/municipal programmes on grants for young people’s initiatives locally. The 2020 state budget law sees allocations amounting to 1.5 million on these purposes.    

Minister Dumbraveanu unveiled a draft on starting negotiations on a draft Memorandum of Understanding between the governments of Moldova and India on cooperation in the health and medicine sector. The goal of the document is to establish an inter-governmental cooperation, by joint use of technical, scientific, financial and human resources for the modernization, strengthening of the capacities of human and material resources, including infrastructure ones, involved in the providing of medical assistance, as well as the medical training, formation and research from both countries.    

MSMPS presented for approval a draft meant to ensure the needed legal framework, in the context of digitalizing the process of registration of the status of unemployed and providing of the unemployment benefit (AS). The draft sees giving possibility to submit online the application on registration of the status of unemployed and removing the need to physically present the documents. The record of jobless people will be made only in the information system, by removing the costs for the file’s preservation and transfer. The decision of establishing will be issued concomitantly with the registration of the status and the term of 30 days of AS’ calculation by the national Social Insurances House will be removed. The cost of the amendments’ implementation will be of about 1.8 million lei and will be implemented by the Electronic Governance Agency.    

Deputy Prime Minister Serghei Puscuta unveiled a draft law on the Customs Code. The draft implies the merger in a single normative act of four laws (the current Customs Code No1149/2000, the law on the customs tariff No 1380/1997, law on the way of import and export of goods from Moldova’s territory by private people No 1569/2002, the law on the approval of the combined classified list of goods No 172/2017). Among the draft’s innovating elements, there is the switch from declarations on paper to electronic declarations, removing the tax for the carrying out of the customs procedures, changing the form of the contravention, etc.   

Government’s Secretary General Liliana Iaconi presented a draft on the awarding of the National Prize for 2020. The draft was elaborated following a decision by the commission for awarding the National Prize from 30 June 2020 to provide additional national prizes to representatives of the medical system, as a token of appreciation and gratitude for the management of the epidemiological situation. Necessary financial means worth 400,000 lei were identified, to award five National Prizes to medical sector’s representatives. 

The participants in the meeting approved also a draft on starting negotiations and approving the signing of the agreement on loan between Moldova and the European Union on Macro-financial Assistance. The agreement envisages the providing of a loan worth 100 million euros, in two equal installments, in order to back Moldova in the present economic situation. The disbursement of the first installment is conditioned by the signing of the memorandum of understanding; the second installment will depend on the progress made in the implementation of six actions stipulated in the memorandum. The goal of the macro-financial assistance is to diminish the constraints of Moldova’s foreign financing, attenuate the balance of payments and the budget’s needs.