Voluntary amalgamation methodology of administrative-territorial units approved by government

Chisinau, Nov. 29 /MOLDPRES/- Government approved the methodology of voluntary amalgamation of administrative-territorial units. The document sees the entire process, criteria and conditions for its implementation, the government's communication and protocol department has reported.

The government will support the amalgamated localities by providing financial sources to boost the budgets. The localities will benefit from financial support for infrastructure development and preparation for the voluntary amalgamation process. 250 million lei have been planned for 2023 in the state budget law.

The methodology will serve as support in the development of effective local public administration and the exclusion of excessive fragmentation of localities. According to statistics, the local public administration is extremely fragmented, almost 90% of the administrative-territorial units of the first level having a small population, below 5,000 inhabitants.

Also, the voluntary territorial amalgamation will increase the institutional and financial capacity of the local public administration, and as a result the authorities will provide citizens with better quality and more accessible services.

The voluntary amalgamation methodology was set up with Switzerland support, implemented by Skat Consulting, with UNDP contribution.