Vladimir Bolea: In June, $6.5 million will be provided to strengthen AIPA and ANSA
The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry has undergone a reorganisation and reform process, following which a new directorate has been created to deal with the food industry, said Minister Vladimir Bolea. According to him, the selection of candidates for management positions is currently taking place. At the same time, the directorate will be responsible for analysing prices and markets, which is an extremely important tool for increasing the economic potential of Moldovan agriculture, especially in the context of fierce competition in the Black Sea basin region, he added. Vladimir Bolea also specified that changes are taking place at the level of the Agency for Intervention and Payments for Agriculture.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry plans to increase the salaries of the employees of the Agency for Intervention and Payments for Agriculture at the next budget rectification, which will take place by the end of July, Minister Vladimir Bolea announced at a press conference on strengthening the institutional capacities of AIPA and the process of paying subsidies to agricultural producers. According to the minister, the low level of wages leads to unattractive jobs and lack of motivation of employees. At the end of 2022, EU structures conducted an audit of AIPA, and the agency was praised by international experts, the official said. Thus, since the beginning of the year the ministry has been concerned with strengthening the agency, and in the first stage the number of employees was doubled.
"Obviously, the Ministry of Agriculture, in order to fortify AIPA, always provides for new budget lines. On June 5, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Government of Moldova and the World Bank will sign a $55 million credit, which includes a $6.5 million component for fortifying AIPA and ANSA. These are two state agencies on whose welfare and the way farmers are subsidised depend. When we talk about ANSA, it is the agency that guarantees the safety of the products that reach the table of the citizens of the Republic of Moldova to be consumed," said Vladimir Bolea.
This year, 110 projects have been financed through the National Fund for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Environment, said the deputy director of the Agricultural Intervention and Payments Agency (AIPA), Diana Coșalîc. According to her, AIPA employees are striving to succeed in the near future to grant subsidies to agricultural producers who applied in 2022. At the same time, Diana Coșalîc said that once the number of people in the agency increases, it will be possible to examine the files faster, distribute new subsidy programs, check them correctly, transparently and with minimal risk of fraud.
"Regarding the use of the National Fund for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Environment, we will administer 1.5 billion lei this year. In fact, it is the same amount as last year, the beginning of the budget year. I would like to inform that at the current situation, the agency has already distributed 600 million lei to the account of subsidy beneficiaries. This is an impressive amount, which has been distributed to the beneficiaries of subsidies in the near future", said Diana Coșalîc.
For 2023, according to the state budget law, the size of the National Fund for Development of Agriculture and Rural Environment is 1.5 billion lei. In 2022, the subsidy fund was the same, but for the first time during the year it was increased to 1.7 billion lei. According to officials at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, the fund will be replenished again this year.
