Project title: Economic Analysis of the Gagauzian Territorial-Autonomous Unit and its Development Potential;
Implementation period: January 1 – June 30, 2008;
Funded by: Soros Foundation - Moldova;
Project goal: Conduct an economic assessment of the Gagauzian Territorial-Autonomous Unit of Republic of Moldova with the analytical results to be used by the Gagauzian official authorities in the process of elaborating the Regional Development Strategy;
Main activities:
- Collected and checked official statistical data on the regional economic evolutions;
- Developed and used instruments for collection of additional data: business survey (120 companies + 10 commercial banks), community survey (25 communities), social opinion survey (514 respondents);
- Discussed in-depth key development challenges of the region with 7 NGOs, 7 SMEs, and 7 mayors;
- Conducted structured interviews with 6 companies, 3 mayors and 3 NGOs;
- Conduct economic analysis of the main economic sectors of the region;
- Analyzed the data and identified key economic development problems for the region;
- Conducted SWOT analysis for the regional economy;
- Wrote a study on economic situation and potential of the region;
- Presented the study at two regional roundtables;
- Assisted the regional authorities to incorporate the main findings of the study in the Regional Development Strategy;
Main outputs and outcomes:
- Analytic Study “Gagauzian Autonomous-Territorial Unit: analysis of the economic situation and development potential”, authors Valeriu Prohnitchi, Ana Popa, Alex Oprunenco, Alexandru Gamanji, Vitalie Sochirca, Denis Cenusa; published in Romanian, Russian and English languages;
- A set of policy recommendations that were used by the Gagauzian authorities to draft the Regional Development Strategy;
- Two presentations delivered at regional roundtables organized in the city of Comrat, on 20 of May and 5 of July 2008;
Project impact:
The project has informed the regional authorities about key economic challenges, risks and opportunities affecting the economic development of Gagauzia. It assessed the socio-economic evolution of the region, its endowment with human, capital and natural resources, quality of infrastructure, state of the agricultural sector, food and non-food manufacture, trade and services, and business climate. The Analytic Study suggests that in order to embark upon a successful economic development path, the regional authorities have to concentrate on stimulating competitiveness of the region as a whole, rather than stressing attention on particular industries. Regional authorities are advised to concentrate efforts to eliminate the horizontal aspects, which have a negative influence on regional economy (bad roads, bureaucracy, and low skilled labor, lack of improvements in quality certification and poor implementation of European technical standards). The findings of the study were included in the Regional Development Strategy designed by the Gagauzian authorities.