Last year, Moldova had to face a string of overlapped crises, as a result of the multidimensional effects of the war in Ukraine: on the one hand, the humanitarian crisis, triggered by the wave of refugees, which must be managed by the Moldovan authorities, on the other hand, an economic crisis, triggered by the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and boosted in chain by the energy crisis, major inflation pressures, loss of sales markets and chains from the region because of the war, additional budgetary expenses for attenuating the effects of the crises on the residents and the business environment, etc.
Taking into account these conditions, in order to back the Moldovan government’s efforts to overcome the unprecedented crisis situations, concomitantly with the carrying out of the reforms needed for the state’s modernization and strengthening the resilience of its institutions, at an initiative by the development partners, the Moldova Support Platform ministerial conference was launched. During 2022, three meetings of the Platform were held – in Berlin in April, in Bucharest in July and in Paris in November, Finance Ministry’s sources reported.
Thus, last year, Moldova managed to mobilize external sources for direct budgetary support from the development partners with a value equivalent to 13.72 billion lei (about 671 million euros), up by 8.64 billion lei (about 422.9 million euros) than was planned at the beginning of the budgetary year. The additional financial means for budgetary support for attenuating the crises were collected, in particular, from IMF – 55.1 million euros and $33.2 million, World Bank – 101.3 million euros and $9.24 million, European Commission- 75 million euros, French Development Agency – 75 million euros, Germany’s government – 40 million euros, Romania’s government – 10.49 million euros and government of Poland – 20 million euros.
Also, about 199.7 million lei entered a special account opened by the Finance Ministry for the collection of financial donations meant for the humanitarian assistance for the management of the crisis of refugees from Ukraine. As much as $3.2 million of this money was provided by the government of Switzerland, 3.66 million euros – by the Cabinet of Sweden, 3.25 million euros – by the government of Lithuania, 0.1 million euros – by government of Slovakia and 0.1 million euros – by the Cabinet of Estonia.
For the 2023 year, the authorities managed to mobilize of foreign financial assistance for budgetary support worth 16.87 billion lei (of which 25.6% – non-refundable), of which about 160.5 million euros (about 3.3 billion lei) represent financial commitments announced at the Paris Conference (November 21, 2022).
At those three Moldova Support Platform ministerial conferences (Berlin, Bucharest, Paris), the development partners announced for Moldova financial and humanitarian commitments of a value equivalent to about 1.4 billion euros, which was to be allocated and turned to good account in the next years.
A good deal of the support announced within the Moldova Support Platform was not managed by the government, but by UN agencies and beneficiaries of the private sector of various investment projects and guaranteeing schemes. At the same time, some of the foreign creditors, such as the European Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, World Bank, Council of Europe Development Bank, etc. expressed intention to provide support for infrastructure investment projects for the next years, which would contribute to the consolidation of Moldova’s resilience. (Moldpres/Business World Magazine)