Senior officials from Switzerland visit the South Regional Development Agency

Senior officials from Switzerland – His Excellency, Manuel Sager, the General Director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), E.S. Elisabeth von Capeller, Deputy General Director of the SDC, Director of the Department of Cooperation with the countries of Eastern Europe, and Simone Giger, Director of the Swiss Cooperation Office in Moldova, made today in the afternoon a visit to the centre of residence of the South Region.

During their visit to Cimislia town, the Swiss ambassadors had a meeting with the Director of the South Regional Development Agency, Maria Culesov, member of the South Regional Development Council, Gheorghe Netedu, and the consultant of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), Sergiu Plesca.

The purpose of the assessment visit in our country of the senior officials from Switzerland, including to Cimislia, is to meet the main partners of SDC in Moldova and to see how projects implemented with the support of the Government of Switzerland operate.

However, the Swiss officials wanted to learn personally about the activity of the South RDA and socio-economic problems of the South Development Region of Moldova. This is due to the fact that the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) intends to explore in the future this collaboration platform as well – the regional development agencies, both through GIZ project that SDS co-funds in Cahul Rayon in the field of water and sanitation, and through another project at the beginning of the way in Moldova – “Strengthening the Institutional Framework in the field of Water Supply and Sanitation”.

The parties discussed the specifics and peculiarities of the Sough Development Region of Moldova, and respectively the areas of intervention of the South Regional Development Agency in the work of the institution, the collaboration of the South RDA with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) in the project of Modernization of Local Public Services in the Republic of Moldova (MLPS) and with the LPA I and II in implementation of regional development projects.

Also, the Swiss officials were interested in the structure and the way the South Regional Development Council exercises its powers, the tender of project proposals that is underway, the prospects of development of the South RDA and largely, the inter-institutional cooperation, which, in their view, could mainly contribute to improvement of sustainable access of rural population to quality drinking water. In this context, the Swiss ambassadors asked from representatives of the South RDA proposals on the ways and ideas of effective cooperation in the future.

Maria Culesov, the Director of the South RDA, talked about the existing problems in the region, particularly about the most acute one – water supply and sanitation. In this context, Mrs. Culesov said that most of the projects submitted by the LPA at the current tender of regional development projects 2017-2020 refer to the respective area of intervention and requires great attention and an essential and consistent funding.

The Director of the South RDA thanked the foreign guests for their support provided so far to our country by the Swiss Government, stating that the South RDA still remains open to collaboration with foreign donors and expressing confidence that this collaboration will be even closer, more efficient in the future.

We note that the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) assists Moldova under the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Moldova and the Government of the Swiss Confederation on humanitarian assistance and technical cooperation, signed in Chisinau on 20 September 2001.

Thus, since 2000, the assistance of Switzerland focused on humanitarian activities and rehabilitation of social institutions to ensure better standards of living for residents of our country, and lately, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) focused its efforts on two areas – Health and Water and Sanitation, pursuing the objective of supporting development of these sectors in line with the European standards.