CHIȘINĂU, 29^th October 2012. National Strategy for Regional Development and the Unique Program Document for 2013-2015 were approved at the meeting of the National Coordination Council for Regional Development.

Council members held a hearing to evaluate project proposals submitted under the second Call for Proposals (APP 2) for regional development as well as to approve the documents mentioned. Other issues in the agenda included: implementation of regional development projects and use funds from the National Fund for Regional Development and redistributing funds within the Fund appropriations for the current year.

After discussions, members of the NCCRD included 56 projects in the UPD: 44 projects collected as a result of the APP 2 organization and 12 UPD projects from 2010-2012.

With regards to the projects included in the UPD, Marcel RĂDUCAN, Minister of Regional Development and Construction, said that, along the way, the NCCRD may intervene with the decision to complete the document, according to the Law on regional development to include or exclude projects or to redistribute money. The Minister added that the new strategy ensures continuity and complements the process started two years ago, but filtering out procedure is more rigorous due to project implementation experience during this period.

Valeriu LAZĂR, Deputy Prime Minister of the Ministry of Economy, who is also president of NCCRD, said that the second phase of regional development projects that will be funded have a greater impact. There are ambitious projects that found in the 3 priority areas: physical rehabilitation, support for private sector development, as well as improvement of the environment and tourism.

At the hearing, Veaceslav GUȚUȚUI, Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Construction, presented detailed information on the objectives and mechanisms for implementation for the NSRD and Valerian BÎNZARU, General Director of Regional Development, spoke about APP 2 and the capitalization funds.

The members of the NCCRD reviewed ongoing projects to make a decision on the redistribution of money from the NFRD. Therefore, the Board decided that 15 million lei is approved for funding projects, recovery of which was compromised for any reason, and will be redistributed to ensure completion by the end of the year to other regional projects: construction of sewerage system in Ocnița, construction waste from the polygons Hîncesti and Sîngerei, and the construction and rehabilitation of several roads Rezeni, Căinari, Sireți, Dimitrova-Acui.

In the end, it was decided that the Regional Development Agencies will provide more support to potential applicants to develop projects that can be economically implemented in accordance with Priority II: Supporting private sector regional development in the North, Central, and South regions and after completion of their evaluation, they will be included in UPD.

Recall that, in 2012, funds allocated for the NFRD totaled 174,7 million lei (167,72 thousand lei for project implementation and operational costs of 6,98 for the RDAs in the North, Central, and South), 105,43 million lei has been capitalized up to October of this year. ♦ MDRC