The delegation of Moldova took part in the meeting of the WTO Public Procurement Committee
According to the Ministry of Finance, in particular, on June 6-7, a meeting of the Public Procurement Committee (GPA) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) was held in Geneva. Moldova was represented at this event by State Secretary of the Ministry of Finance Vladimir Arachelov, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Moldova to the UN, WTO and other international organizations in Geneva, Ambassador Tatiana Molcean, Head of the Public Procurement Department of the Ministry of Finance Căinăreanu Sergiu and representative of the country to the WTO in the Geneva Mission Cravet Elena. During the plenary meeting of the WTO Public Procurement Committee, Vladimir Arachelov presented Moldova's position regarding support for the accession of North Macedonia to the GPA Agreement, as well as the initiation of this process by Albania, noting that the accession of new members is a strong signal for the region and not only in relation to the opening of the market, transparency and good governance in public procurement. Supporting the observer status proposed by the EBRD, he noted the important contribution and assistance provided by it over the years in the process of accession and implementation of the relevant Agreement by our country, and also spoke about national priorities for the coming years in the field of public procurement. At the same time, Moldova's actions aimed at the implementation of the Public Procurement Agreement were presented, with a summary of the annual statistics provided by Moldova in the context of the need to enforce and promote the principle of transparency. In addition, the Moldovan delegation held discussions and bilateral meetings with current GPA members - the UK, as well as potential members such as Albania and North Macedonia. The delegation also took part in a series of meetings with Committee Chairman Martin Zbinden, representative of Switzerland, with the WTO GPA Secretariat, as well as with the EBRD delegation headed by Michael Strauss, during which Vladimir Arachelov and members of the delegation confirmed the priorities of Moldova through the prism of the implementation of the GPA Agreement, as well as the provisions relating to public procurement from the Association Agreement and DCFTA between Moldova and the EU, confirming the possibility of continuing cooperation with development partners. As noted in the Ministry of Finance, this was the first meeting chaired by the head of the Committee, Martin Zbinden (Switzerland), who was elected chairman in May this year. During the bilateral meeting, Martin Zbinden thanked Moldova for the actions taken over the past 4 years, namely for the attention paid to the principle of transparency and the data provided by our country, since Moldova is considered as a leader at the current stage. He appreciated the efforts made to ensure active representation on the committee and participation in information sessions, including the GPA knowledge series, as well as the excellent level of cooperation established between the WTO GPA Secretariat and Moldovan representatives. // 09.06.2023 — InfoMarket.
