UNPD Aid for Trade Needs Assessment and Trade Mainstreaming Roundtable Report for the Republic of Moldova (2011)

On March 30^th, 2011 the CMB Training Center participated in a UNPD roundtable meeting that reported Moldova’s progress in the Finland sponsored Aid for Trade Needs Assessment and Trade Mainstreaming programs.  The meeting was attended by several representatives from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, The Moldovan Ministry of Economics, UNDP Moldova, and local private sector and civil society members from Moldova.

The focus of the meeting was discussing the progress report of Moldova in the Aid for Trade Needs Assessment and Trade Mainstreaming Programs from 2009 to 2010.  The goal of the Aid for Trade program is to identify a set of policy recommendations and technical assistance needs aimed at improving the contribution of trade to human development and poverty reduction.  Trade can be an opportunity to enlarge human choices if an inclusive and enabling human development focused trade framework is established.  A human development focused approach to trade can constitute one of the main leverages for long-term sustainable inclusive development.  Thus the purpose of the UNDP study in Moldova was to provide analysis of foreign trade in close association with the country’s human development and to identify possible interventions to be supported by the Aid for Trade programme. The report for Moldova highlighted capacity gaps, gave present trade-related policy recommendations and created an action matrix for potential donor assistance on the national and regional levels.

The findings from the report showed that the human development level in Moldova somewhat exceeds its level of economic development.  Sectors responsible for human development – education, health, environmental protection, ect. – are heavily dependent on public financing.  It also follows from the data that government budget revenues are strongly dependent on the trade performance, so improvements in public financing of all human development activities are linked to the foreign trade development as well as with general increase in efficiency of public services delivery.  Thus, the level of human development in Moldova can continue to grow in Moldova strengthens its trade performance in the country’s 3 main areas of wine and agricultural products, garments, footwear, and other clothing products, and services.

Moldova will continue to be part of the Aid for Trade Needs Assessment and Trade Mainstreaming Programs from 2011 to 2013, continuing the country’s path towards successful human and economic development.