AFD Chief Executive Officer Rémy Rioux’s visit to Chisinau on 23 and 24 May marked the beginning of AFD Group’s first initiatives in Moldova. They will focus on the country’s gradual convergence with European Union standards with an eye to joining the EU, implementing the Paris Agreement, and the adaptation to the consequences of the war in Ukraine.
Mere months after the opening of AFD’s office in Moldova in February, Rémy Rioux visited Moldovan partners. Two agreements were signed by AFD and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development to pave the way for technical and financial cooperation to improve energy security and build sustainable railways in Moldova.
At the Moldova Support Conference on April 5 in Berlin, France pledged support in the order of €126 million, including €75 million via AFD. The first budgetary aid of €15 million on behalf of the French State to face the consequences of the war in Ukraine was approved mid-April.
An additional €60 million in budget support for public policies in the energy and railway sectors will be submitted to AFD’s Board for final approval in mid-June.
Multidimensional support through the Group’s three subsidiaries
Via its subsidiaries Proparco and Expertise France, AFD is combining budgetary support in Moldova for public institutions, the financing of private companies as well as technical assistance.
During the same visit, an €8 million loan was signed by Proparco and the microfinance institution MicroInvest to support the country’s entrepreneurs and SMEs.
The country’s wider economy is on the mend too, after losing close to an eighth of its GDP to bank fraud in 2014. Some $1 billion US was spirited away in dubious loans and opaque transactions. In October 2021, Expertise France recruited the French expert in public administration Claudine Justafré, to assist the Moldovan government in the recovery of stolen assets.
“These actions mark the beginning of our cooperation with Moldova,” said Rémy Rioux, AFD’s Chief Executive Officer during his visit. “And they will be felt by the Moldovan population in their daily lives.”
In a meeting with the EU Ambassador to Moldova, he also stressed that it is essential that Europe continue to support Moldova in its trajectory of convergence with EU norms.