More than 150 guests have participated in the event, among which one could meet representatives of the cities participating in the revitalization process in Moldova, of Moldovan partnering ministries and regional development agencies, of the Ministry of Investment and Economic Development of Poland, development partners, facilitators from Centre of Urbanism and all the enthusiasts in urban revitalization in Moldova.

The conference has been a great opportunity to discuss the results of the processes carried on by now, and specifically the legal framework at the national level (The Guideline) in the domain of urban revitalisation, the implementation of six pilot-projects during the year of 2018 (in Comrat, Ungheni, Balti, Ocnita, Edinet, Cimislia, and the elaboration of the Urban Revitalisation Programs within the technical support offered to those 9 participant cities in 2018.

Within the Conference, eight cities (Ocnita, Soroca, Edinet, Cimislia, Causeni, Ungheni, Balti, Ialoveni), selected during the Small Grants Fund call of 2019 – Urban Revitalization edition, received guarantee letters regarding the co-financing of the selected Urban Revitalization programs implementation, supported by the Polish aid.

“Urban Revitalization in Moldova is a complex process, a balance between infrastructure interventions and social measures – both integrated, they come to improve life’s quality of the inhabitants in the revitalization zone”, Anastasia Stefanita emphasized, program coordinator, Solidarity Fund PL in Moldova.

These interventions are of infrastructure, building and community levels. For e.g., in 2018 in Balti, the facilities of the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” middle school were improved, but at the community level, there was organized a revitalization ideas competition, conversations with the zone’s inhabitant, that consequently created an initiative group. In Ungheni, within an integrated program (Polish aid and GEF), the yards of a locative buildings area were renovated, the inhabitants created their own associations to actively collaborate with an economic agent from the zone to organize community manifests.

Revitalization represents an inspirational instrument for urban development in Europe. In Poland, more than 100 cities are implementing comprehensive urban revitalization programs. The process is based upon certain important principles: complexity, integrated approach, partnerships and participation. The main idea is to positively transform those parts of the city that are in critical condition and in need of social, architectural and economic changes.

The process of urban revitalization in Moldova is co-financed from the funds of the programme for development cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland – Polish aid. Within the project, one of the goals was to share the Polish experience and build, together, an efficient system of urban development in Moldova, with an emphasis on the degraded revitalisation zone.

The event hosted a discussion session for the development partners regarding the opportunities to support urban development in Republic of Moldova.
The event was a new step to developing a city network for urban revitalisation in Moldova and to identifying possible synergies of the efforts regarding the urban development.

The second day of the Conference was organized as a study visit in Ungheni, where the colleagues from Poland (mayors of Starachowice and Dobiegniew, experts and representatives of the Ministry of Investment and Economic Development of Poland) and representatives of Moldovan cities could see the pilot-project of 2018, an example of a multifunctional centre and, of course, the revitalisation zone, where many interventions will be held during 2019.

The article belongs to the series of implemented activities in the context of promotion of the Urban Revitalisation approach in Republic of Moldova with the support of the programme for development and cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland.