Projects submitted to European Village program show we can change things in country - Moldovan deputy premier says

Chisinau, May 6 / MOLDPRES /- During the implementation of the projects for the European Village program, 724 files were submitted, which shows that we can change things in this country. Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spinu, Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development made the statement at a press conference on the preliminary dates of the competition for project proposals under the National Local Development Program European Village.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, out of a total of 724 projects applied and evaluated in the first stage, 717 projects were admitted, two were rejected and five were withdrawn by the representatives of the local public administration. "203 projects were applied in the Northern Region, 337 projects were applied in the Center of the country, 156 in the South of Moldova and 28 projects in Gagauzia. The total value of the submitted projects is about 2.8 billion lei. In the state budget, 670 million were allocated for the start of these projects, including 200 million allocated through the rectification of the budget ", Spinu said.

"It is obvious that this amount is not enough to cover the expenses of all the submitted projects. However, after the final technical evaluation of the projects submitted by the mayors, we will seek support from our development partners, so that we can manage to finance as many of these initiatives as possible. For the first time, the Government will finance the contribution of the mayoralties for the projects attracted from external sources ", he said.

According to Spinu, of the submitted projects, water and sewerage remain a priority for mayors and central authorities. "Over one billion lei or 46% of the value of the projects are requests for the construction, expansion, modernization of water supply, treatment and sewerage systems for local public institutions. Other priorities are related to street lighting, energy efficiency and rehabilitation of public buildings, green energy and renewable resources, infrastructure for disadvantaged groups, etc. ", he said.

According to the Minister of Infrastructure, a report on the results of the technical evaluation will be prepared after the technical evaluation of the funding applications. The report will be presented to the authority for the elaboration of the regional development policy for the elaboration of the draft Single Program Document and its presentation for approval to the National Council for Coordination of Regional and Local Development and, subsequently, for approval by Government decision. "All these procedures will be carried out operatively, so that at the end of May the first projects will start," he said.

"We have mayors who want change for their villages and to whom we will offer credible opportunities to bring better living conditions to the localities they manage," he said.

President Maia Sandu announced on March 21 the launch of the national local development program European Village. This year, the project program for local development has a budget of 470 million lei. Another 300 million lei from the program were allocated to the regional development project.