Residents of 40 villages from the Republic of Moldova benefit from better communal services, due to the continuous development of ten joint inter-municipal enterprises.

Each of the 10 enterprises received a special vehicle and specialized equipment necessary for providing better quality services of centralized waste collection and disposal, snow removal, road maintenance and street lighting, development and maintenance of water supply systems, etc.

These inter-municipal cooperation projects were supported by the Joint Integrated Local Development Programme (JILDP). The total amount of grants was 1 million dollars. The beneficiaries are more than 120,000 citizens. JILDP was implemented by the Government of the Republic of Moldova, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the financial support of the Government of Denmark.

Sergiu Ceaus, Deputy Secretary General of the Government of the Republic of Moldova, attending the event, mentioned that change in the country starts at local level with the effort of local authorities and citizens: "For small communities, this is the only viable solution to provide quality services. It is worth mentioning that in Moldova 86% of localities have less than five thousand inhabitants. Inter-municipal cooperation modernizes the country, protecting the environment becomes a must and the citizens’' satisfaction – a priority. The Government, together with the development partners, supports and encourages the development of the Republic of Moldova in this direction ".

"The development of the country begins with every village. In the last three years, with joint efforts, we managed to develop several localities in Moldova thanks to this efficient model of organizing quality public services. The identification of these solutions is not accidental, but a logical one, since it ensures raising living standards in rural areas, where more than 60% of the Moldovan citizens live and work. However, the greatest achievement is when people have a better life due to the fact that they can walk in well-lit streets, have snow cleared roads, can live in a cleaner environment having a centralized waste management service", said Narine Sahakyan, Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP Moldova.

"In our community several projects were developed and have brought prosperity to residents: a modern water supply, street lighting, service sanitation, roads’ maintenance. We had the opportunity to join these services under a single enterprise to serve several localities. This ensures the sustainability of the implemented infrastructure projects, and the rational use of municipalities’ available resources" said Nicolae Buzu, mayor of Peresecina, at the ceremony for the donation of equipment to 10 inter-municipal enterprises.

The 10 inter-municipal cooperation projects apply in practice the provisions of the National Decentralization Strategy of the Republic of Moldova approved by the Parliament in April 2012.