Activity of the President on July 17–31, 2007

Decrees

Moldova’s president has awarded the honorific title Master of Arts to Valerii Corcimari, chief adviser for the presidential press service (personal photographer of the president).

Vladimir Voronin has signed a decree awarding the Mihai Eminescu medal to businessman Mihail Titov, founder of the Foundation for Cultural Initiatives Lumea — Oglinda Pentru Moldova.

Under a presidential decree, chairmen of the Courts of Appeal in Bender, Cahul and Chisinau, as well as chairman of the Anenii Noi law court have been reinvested in offices for a 4-year term.

Sittings. Decisions. Statements

July 25, 2007 news conference

President Vladimir Voronin has tackled the local elections in an introductive speech, telling his opinion as “chief of state and leader of the ruling party.” According to the chief of state, the recent local elections have essentially changed the political “map” of Moldova and produced a new situation of principle, which will not basically change until the parliamentary elections. Thus, the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) will confront all opposition after a year and half. Voronin admitted that the state of stability in the past two years, the political lull have demobilised the PCRM, the medium link of its leadership. At the same time, it is “absolutely unclear” for him “how central and local authorities will cooperate from now on,” as local authorities in majority of districts are in intransigent opposition with the central government, with the policy adopted by the centre, and even against the central budget. In this situation, the power will concentrate the budgetary funds “to implement strategic regional development projects.” The PCRM leader considers that the Christian Democratic People’s Party and the Democratic Party have destroyed in a couple of days the consensus of political parties, which the Parliament has developed in two years. The opposition is accused of having easily given up the consensus of parliamentary political parties, claiming that the central authorities misinterpret the Transnistrian problem. As a result, the PCRM and its parliamentary faction will not continue any longer the practice of political altruism and will not offer anymore different posts and seats in governmental institutions to the opposition; it will not agree beforehand with the opposition regarding common stances on diverse problems regarding the state power and state policy. The communists will act in future by starting from the fact that they carry all political responsibility for protection of interests of the state and people.

At the same news conference, Vladimir Voronin:

Affirmed that the Transnistrian problem may be settled only on basis of the 2005 law on basic principles of Transnistria’s status, within the “Five-Plus-Two” negotiation format;
Reiterated the standpoint that Russia should withdraw its military presence from Moldova;
Described Russia’s stance on Transnistrian settlement as “very constructive”;
Said that Moldova wants to obtain as soon as possible two out of the four fundamental freedoms in the European Union: a free trade and a free move of citizens;
Noted that Romania will not open another two consulates in Moldova because Romanian authorities do not ensure an appropriate reciprocity;
Confirmed that some interdictions will be introduced for holders of dual citizenship who bid for public functions;
Assured that the problem of wine exports to the Russian Federation will be approached the way Moldovan authorities want, with solutions partly proposed by Russia being rejected.

Supreme Security Council

Moldova’s president has chaired a sitting of the Supreme Security Council (SSC), which examined the TB epidemiological situation and the implementation of a project on improvement of water providing systems financed by the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development. Vladimir Voronin raised dissatisfaction with the way high-ranking functionaries of the Agency for Constructions and Territorial Development have supervised and administrated the implementation of the water providing project, as the implementation terms of the project were violated and the project was not efficiently implemented because of the lack of an adequate control by responsible officials. A SSC decision seeks the dismissal of Mr. Anatolie Izbinda from the post of deputy director of the Agency for Constructions and Territorial Development and delivery of necessary materials, so that to settle this case accordingly to law and to punish the persons who committed abuses and negligence.

Also, the chief of state is unsatisfied with the TB epidemiological situation, stressing the inefficiency of some measures aimed at control and treatment, proved by the high number of TB patients who are discovered too late. Speaking about ensuring this sector with staff, Mr. Voronin called for a substantial rise of salaries and creation of stimulatory conditions for phthisis-pulmonary doctors, and noted the opportunity of improving the legislation in force, so that to stipulate norms on treatment and conduct of TB patients, including detainees.

Concerns with situation in agriculture

The Moldovan president has met the representative of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to Moldova and sought assistance to attenuate the consequences of the 2007 drought. The FAO representative presented to the chief of state a study on management of natural risks in agriculture worked out by the World Bank and FAO.

Vladimir Voronin has met representatives of the diplomatic corps to Moldova and told them the situation produced by unfavourable weather and sought the support of the represented countries and organisations to attenuate the effects of the drought.

In order to study the effects of the drought, the chief of state has convoked a special sitting with the participation of heads of the Parliament and Government, scientists, directors of specialised state institutions and enterprises. Reports on climatic factors that produced the drought this year, state of things in agriculture and possibilities to attenuate the effects of unfavourable climatic conditions were presented at the sitting. President Voronin said that prices of the bread bought by vulnerable people must not grow and instructed competent bodies to prevent the growth of bread prices for speculative purposes. It was reiterated the need of a national irrigation programme capable to ensure the irrigation of at least 600,000 hectares of arable land.

A presidency-convoked sitting on July 30, 2007 studied the issue of sustainable development of agriculture and food security, stressing the necessity of implementing decisive actions in order to remedy the effects of the drought and ensure a sustained development of the agro-food sector in future. Vladimir Voronin proposed the elaboration of a sustainable agriculture development strategy, underlining the need of taking over the experience new E.U. members to issue such documents. It is considered opportune to create a state commission in charge with organising and monitoring the drafting of this strategy on basis of existing strategies and programmes on diverse areas, including the National Programme Moldovan Village.

A joint sitting of the Presidency, Government and district chairmen has discussed the drought problem, its impact on agriculture and future actions to remedy the crisis. The president named among primordial tasks the introduction of a strict control on bread prices and prevention of an economically groundless rise of bread prices for speculative purposes. Also, the chief of state reiterated the idea to create specialised technological machine stations in certain areas: irrigation, viticulture, and fruit growing. According to the president, an efficient cooperation between the central leadership and local public administration bodies would be an important factor to successfully resolve drought-related problems, inviting new district chairmen to be constructive toward central authorities of the country in order to defeat this difficult situation.

Opening of Tocuz-Cainari-Mereni gas pipe

The Moldovan president has chaired a working sitting at the scene, which focussed on finalisation of construction and preparations for putting into operation the high-pressure gas pipe Tocuz-Cainari-Mereni, which was completely built. The gas pipe is 62.5 kilometres long and can carry 800 million cubic metres of gas a year. Although it was announced that the gas pipe is prepared, the sitting discussed problems “which will be resolved in order to put it into operation.” Vladimir Voronin also stressed that the successful implementation of this project is part of a series of measures aimed at developing the infrastructure of the country in general and of the capital in particular, and will help improve the living standards of citizens.

Implementation of mandatory health insurance

A summary sitting on implementation of the mandatory health insurance programme has analysed the activity of the healthcare system in the first half of 2007. According to reports, the results registered in approximately four years of implementation of this programme have demonstrated the justice of the decision on introduction of health insurance. Data revealing positive paces of financing of the healthcare system were invoked to support these assessments:

The budget for the public system has grown about 2.4-fold;
Expenses for drugs have increased about 3.7-fold and expenses for food have advanced 2.2-fold;
Salaries of medical personnel have grown about 2.8-fold (compared with the 2.1-fold rise of medium wages on economy).

Following problems of healthcare system were stressed among others:

The ensuring with medical staff, particularly in rural areas;
The unsatisfactory leading skills of directors of medical institutions;
The slow implementation of information technologies in healthcare system;
The necessity of enhancing the funds for the healthcare sector;
The old medical equipment and technologies;
The old buildings that need capital repairs, etc.

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