One hundred years from the unification of Bessarabia and Romania (March 27, 1918 i.e.), the citizens of the Republic of Moldova have been driven to despair by the political, economic and social situation of their country and see their future in a reunification, said Ion Sturza, businessman and former prime minister of the Republic of Moldova on ZF Live.
A unification of the Republic of Moldova and Romania would have a ‘dramatic’ importance, because it would mean adopting different social, economic, cultural and financial standards for Moldova while skipping some important development stages.
“Moldova rising to Romania’s standards would mean skipping some unavoidable steps in the development of the country. It would mean 10 years gained for the Republic of Moldova. I can make this comparison because I have seen Romania’s progress since joining the EU, which is spectacular. It’s an extraordinary difference between present day Romania and the Romania before 2007.”
The Republic of Moldova has a EUR7 billion GDP and a 2.2 million people population, 1 million of which are not Romanians. Moldova’s Statistics Institute says that 3.5 million people live in the country, but actually at least 1 million Moldovans left the country to work abroad, 100,000 of which in Romania, according to Sturza’s estimates.
Republic of Moldova’s economy relies mostly on the agri-food industry. Total exports stand at $2 billion a year, $1 billion of which are food exports. The citizens working abroad send back home about $2 billion a year, Sturza believes.
“The Republic of Moldova has always relied on the agri-food industry. It’s no myth that soils and farmland account for a significant part of Moldova’s GDP. The textile industry is also developed, the IT sector, as well, but the problem is most good people have left the country.”
Anatol Vidrascu, founder of Litera publishing group, said on ZF Live, “Moldova’s only salvation is unification with Romania and it should be done as soon as possible, because the longer the project is delayed, the higher the costs.”
Litera publishing house was established in the Republic of Moldova in 1989 and entered the Romanian market in 2002.
“All the books printed in Romania are also available on the Moldovan market. Were it not for Romania, our publishing house would have long been insolvent, because the Moldovan market is very small and we would have been unable to develop. We are the leaders of the book market in Romania.”
Moldova’s unification with Romania is ‘as feasible [a project] as can be’, Anatol Vidrascu believes, and it would help both the population of the Republic of Moldova and of Romania, because ‘the bigger the country, the higher the growth of its economy.”
“Romania should have already had a new country project after 2007 and nothing would be more beautiful than a unification with Moldova.”
According to Sturza’s calculations, Moldova’s reunification with Romania would last five to ten years in terms of economy and require an about EUR5 billion budget to complete.
“We must see the technical side and the economic issues. Integrating financial systems requires stages that could be overcome in five to ten years with a budget of EUR3 billion to EUR5 billion.”
In case of unification, the government must take into account the ethnic and cultural issues, because about 1 million citizens of the Republic of Moldova are not Romanians (they are Russians, Ukrainians and other nationalities), as well as the geopolitical aspect, “we must know how the European countries and the US see this project.”
A Moldova-Romania unification would bring another 20% to Romania’s GDP, according to Ion Sturza’s calculations.
The first steps towards it would be an energy system connection between Moldova and Romania and tying its currency rate to Romania’s, that is Moldova adopting the leu as its currency, Ion Sturza added.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)