Moldova agreed with the European Commission on the adjustment of the TEN-T network through the construction of the Tirgu-Mures-Iasi-Ungheni-Chisinau-Odessa highway.
This was announced by the State Secretary of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development of Moldova Mircea Pascaluta, speaking at the 16th annual meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission for the Development of the International Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA) held in Tbilisi, in which he took part together with the Secretary General of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional development Lilia Dabija. The event was attended by officials of the Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia member countries and observers, representatives of international organizations who considered topical aspects of interstate cooperation in this area. Mircea Pascaluta gave a retrospective of the general situation in all areas of the transport sector in Moldova, talking about the achievements and challenges of 2022. In this context, he noted the management of the flow of refugees, the reorientation of the movement of logistics chains, the closure of airspace, emphasizing that these are just some of the tasks with which the ministry has done well. “Last year we invested in the development of road infrastructure, railway infrastructure, created the maximum number of connections with Ukraine and Romania. We have activated all logistics channels, re-opened new sections of the railway infrastructure, started building new bridges and advanced in the development of a legislative framework to regulate all areas of transport,” said Mircea Pascaluta. Another important achievement he called the liberalization of freight traffic between Moldova and Ukraine, the introduction of the information system "Electronic permit for road transport." Transport operators will no longer need to apply for permits through the National Road Transport Agency's window, the process for requesting single and multiple permits is being digitized. In the area of rail transport, the ministry team is working on railroad reform. At the beginning of last year, a new Railway Code was adopted, according to which the liberalization of the railway services market is expected through the creation of separate companies for the administration of railway infrastructure and freight traffic. Regarding the progress in aviation, the Secretary of State mentioned that after the assessment mission of the European Commission within the framework of the Civil Aviation Authority and the successful implementation of the Corrective Action Plan, national airlines have been removed from the black list of air carriers, which allows all national air carriers to operate flights in the EU area without restrictions. “We have started developing the Mobility Strategy for 2023-2030, including the Action Plan and the Program for the Implementation of the Strategy, with the support of external partners. The overall goal of the strategy is to develop an accessible, sustainable, interoperable and secure transport system in order to increase the efficiency of passenger and freight transport, improve infrastructure, which will connect Moldova's strategic transport network to the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), as well as to the networks of the region. In addition, Moldova has reached an agreement with the European Commission on the adjustment of the TEN-T network through the construction of the Tirgu-Mures-Iasi-Ungheni-Chisinau-Odessa highway. This will ensure an increase in the flow of goods and passengers between Ukraine, Moldova and Romania,” said Mircea Pascaluta. According to him, 2022 was also a good year for the infrastructure sector in Moldova. More than 300 km of national roads have seen progress, of which 43.1 km are new roads and 248 km are repaired roads. In general, 248 km of roads have been rehabilitated/constructed due to external investments. Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA) is an EU transport technical assistance program established in 1993 to finance projects on the Europe-Caucasus-Asia transport corridor.// 13.02.2023 — InfoMarket
