“Experience shows that this model works,” said Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Bolea during a working session dedicated to the problems of local self-government. – I firmly believe that we can save villages by strengthening cities, creating new growth poles that will generate opportunities for citizens”.
During the meeting, the mayors discussed the prospects of urban development through the prism of harmonizing the goals of the city authorities with the goals of the country’s development.
The creation of a network of growth pole cities generating employment and stimulating the development of adjacent zones by 2027 is the goal of the National Program for the Development of Growth Pole Cities, approved by the government last May.
To avoid the risk of depriving Moldova of regional centers capable of acting as growth poles, which would provoke even greater degradation of the surrounding areas and undermine the growth rate of the national economy, the network initially included the municipalities of Cahul, Comrat, Orhei, Ungheni, Soroca and Edinet. The government plans to expand it.
According to the program, the estimated volume of investments in the development of social infrastructure and support for economic activity in the growth pole cities is more than 3.34 billion lei.
In the process of its implementation, the program provides for the connection of FEZ sub-zones to the infrastructure, creation or development of business incubators, reconstruction of roads, development of the urban public transport system, construction or reconstruction of agri-food markets, recreation areas, sports complexes, etc., improvement of the urban territory, modernization of street lighting systems, expansion of water supply and sewerage networks, etc., etc.
The implementation of the program will result in increasing tax revenues in such cities from an average of 45% to at least 70% of the level of Chisinau municipality, reducing demographic decline and migration, creating jobs in the non-budgetary sector for at least 55% of the able-bodied population, as well as improving the standard of living of the population of the adjacent settlements.
