Voluntary amalgamation in northern district of Moldova: four localities merge into single mayoralty

Four localities from northern Soroca district have ruled to undergo a voluntary amalgamation process and merge into a single mayoralty, in order to strengthen efforts to attract investments for development and to make public services more efficient.

The four localities are Rublenita, Baxani, Solcani, and Septelici. Government’s Secretary General Alexei Buzu said that the localities concerned would benefit from an incentive of 19.3 million lei for local development. The money will be invested in projects to modernize infrastructure and services, to provide citizens with better living conditions.

According to the latest information presented by the authorities, 773 municipalities of Moldova have officially launched voluntary amalgamation procedures, in an effort to reconfigure and strengthen local public administration. A number of 112 localities of them have already chosen to merge their administrative structures around 24 district centers.

The voluntary amalgamation process will end on July 31, and afterwards, starting from August, the government will launch the process of normative amalgamation, as recently announced by Government’s Secretary General Alexei Buzu. In the voluntary stage, localities can decide for themselves with whom they merge, how they organize their administration and what their priorities are, while the government supports communities with development incentives.

In late last January, the government announced the launch of the preparation process for local public administration reform, as part of efforts to modernize administration and improve public services. Subsequently, the authorities organized extensive public consultations, after which the reform concept was presented.

The parliament has recently approved legislative amendments that simplify and improve the voluntary amalgamation process for administrative and territorial units. According to the authorities, the changes were developed following consultations involving more than 4,500 mayors and citizens. At present, more than 400 decisions to initiate the voluntary amalgamation process have been approved nationally.