190 hours 00 minutes of aggregate Moldovan Government time was dedicated to a World Bank-sponsored one-day joint retreat which brought together Moldova’s development partners and the entire Cabinet to build a consensus around how the country will overcome the current socio-economic crisis and where should it be moving in the years ahead. Twenty members of the new Moldovan Cabinet, headed by Prime-Minister Vlad Filat, and representatives of the World Bank, IMF, UN agencies, EBRD, European Commission, SIDA, US Embassy and DFiD participated in the discussions.
The World Bank took the lead in preparing for the event – the first of its kind in the history of Moldova. The scope of the retreat was to consolidate a common understanding of fiscal, economic and social measures that will need to be taken to move Moldova out of the current socio-economic crisis. With an estimated 9 percent drop in GDP in 2009, the priorities include fiscal stabilization, economic recovery, and social protection of the most vulnerable members of society.