Moldovan capital's city hall to issue municipal bonds worth 50 million lei

Chisinau, 4 March /MOLDPRES/ - The Chisinau city hall, in partnership with the Expert-Grup Independent Analytic Centre, today carried out online public hearings on the project, Modernization of Park of Trolley Buses from Chisinau city, which is to be financed based on the issuance of municipal bonds.      

To implement this project, the Chisinau city hall has the goal to attract financial resources worth about 99.2 million lei.   

The Chisinau general mayor, Ion Ceban, described the initiative on the carrying out of investment projects based on the issuance of municipal obligations for local public authorities (APL) as a challenge. ‘’I am confident that the project launched will be successful and that we lay the foundations for new financial instruments for Moldova and for the capital,’’ Ceban said.

For his part, the executive director of the Expert-Grup, Adrian Lupusor, noted that, within the project financed by the Embassy of the Netherlands, three mayoralties from Moldova would be backed: Chisinau, Ceadar-Lunga and Sangera, in the process of issuance of municipal bonds, selected on the basis of an open, competitive tender.    

„The municipal bonds are financial instruments which entail a low risk and an attractive interest for the investor. And the Chisinau city hall is an opportunity, being an additional source of mobilizing funds for financing capital investments,’’ the expert specified.  

In the context, an adviser of the general mayor’s office, Vladimir Mitru, said that the city hall had provided for 99 million lei in the 2021 budget for buying trolley buses. At the same time, based on the partnership with the Expert-Grup Centre, a decision was taken that the source of coverage for some of the transport units, 50 million lei, be provided at the expense of issuing municipal bonds.    

„Under the stipulations of the contract with the Plant from Belarus, we must pay for the trolley buses in advance, after which the delivery is made in a three-month period after the payment of the first installment. Thus, 49 million lei will be covered based on the credit and the rest – based on the issuance of municipal bonds. We should start the process of procurement in the beginning of the year, so that we already have the trolley buses on city’s streets in the second half of 2021,’’ the mayor’s adviser said.   

According to the national legislation, the municipal bonds are instruments of debt, which can be issued by local public administration authorities. Based on these instruments, APL can borrow to get financing, as a rule, for capital investments.

photo: Chisinau city hall