Moldovan, Swedish officials assess, plan bilateral cooperation projects
Moldovan government’s Secretary General Victor Bodiu on April 8 attended the annual meeting on the assessment of the Moldovan-Swedish cooperation, the government’s communication and media relations department has reported.
Part of the Swedish delegation were Swedish Ambassador to Moldova Ingrid Tersman, the head of the reform and selective cooperation department within the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), Elsa Hastad as well as the chief-councillor for development and cooperation within the Swedish embassy in Chisinau, Ros-Mari Balöw.
Bodiu thanked the Swedish delegation for constantly backing Moldova.
The government’s secretary general said the Moldovan-Swedish collaboration ties had helped Moldova successfully launch business initiatives and improve the situation in the democracy, energy efficiency, human rights and gender equality sectors. Bodiu spoke about Moldova’s remarkable success in the central public administration reform, including the enforcement of the National Development Strategy «Moldova 2020» as well as in the elaboration of the e-Transformation agenda, which is meant to increase the governance’s transparency level.
Swedish Ambassador to Moldova Ingrid Tersman reiterated Sweden’s support for Moldova’s EU integration path, praising the implementation of reforms and the efforts the government had taken in this respect. The EU official voiced hope that the current political crisis would be settled and that it would not affect the implementation of modernisation projects.
The Swedish ambassador to Moldova said Sweden had decided to change the way it cooperates with central and eastern European states in order to help them adjust to EU values and priorities. For this purpose, Swedish officials have carried out a Regional Strategy for the Eastern Europe for 2014-2020. Tersman said Sweden examined the possibility to further back the development of the local autonomy and the decentralisation process in Moldova.
In this context, Bodiu voiced hope that Sweden would continue to help Moldova enforce this important reform. He added that the Moldovan government would implement the National Decentralisation Strategy’s action plan, which had a ten-million-dollar budget, saying that the tasks for 2013-2015 were already well-defined. Tersman assured she would come up with suggestions in order to consolidate development projects in this sector.
For her part, Elsa Hastad congratulated Bodiu on the Moldovan government’s determination to meet Moldova’s EU integration goal and to further implement reforms, in spite of the current political crisis. The EU official highly praised the programmes the government had adopted, focusing on the National Development Strategy «Moldova 2020». Hastad added that the SIDA would use the Regional Development Strategy and the transboundary cooperation in order to identify new funding opportunities for Moldovan projects. The officials have also tackled subjects related to combating corruption and gender equality.
Besides the 16 projects amounting to 36.8 million euros, which are currently being implemented, another nine projects, amounting to 13.98 million euros, are expected to be implemented within the Moldovan-Swedish bilateral cooperation in 2013-2015.
Adapted from Allmoldova