Dear Secretary-General,
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen! 

Let me first, express my profound gratitude to all the honorable audience.

Let me thank Mr. Secretary General Houlin Zhao for hosting this High-Level Event.

On behalf of the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure of the Republic of Moldova, allow me to extend my sincere compliments to the ITU for organizing the Plenipotentiary Conference PP-18.

This Conference is a good opportunity to discuss the tremendous role of the ICTs and the future goals planned to be achieved.

The Government of the Republic of Moldova pays special attention to new information technologies. In the 21st Century, information technologies are the cornerstones of progress in all areas of activity, so our duty is to create the optimum conditions for their full integration into the vital processes for our society.

 Due to our efforts on different dimensions and the opening of our society to everything new, the ITCs sector remains one of the most developed and dynamic sectors of the national economy.

The Republic of Moldova has also climbed this year in the World Ranking on the Information Society, conducted by the International Telecommunication Union, ranking 59 out of 176 states included in the ranking, climbing another 4 positions.

A significant competitive advantage of our country, as recognized in several specialized studies, is well-trained human capital. Early digital education, career guidance and university education, in our view, would be crucial interventions for the immediate period ahead.

We are confident of the real growth potential of the ICT sector, but we believe that this growth will be even more dynamic when we will be able to secure the core resource of this industry - skilled and innovative professionals.

The ITCs is an area that creates the highest added value and will remain a priority for the Government in the future. The active steps of the government of Moldova had been taken on construction of innovation and knowledge based economy, formation of innovative ecosystem, innovations and technologies as exports products, increase of competitiveness of country’s education, science and other areas by introducing ICT. Many programs and projects are implementing for construction and functioning of technology parks, business and innovation centers etc.

Moldova identifies itself among the countries with a strong focus on enhancing the growth of the IT industry, as well as expanding its potential. This vector is highlighted by successful implementation of such strategic documents as the National Strategy for information society development “Digital Moldova 2020”, and by the Strategy for the “IT Industry Competitiveness Strategy”. Moldova has almost fully leverage the potential of these two strategies.

The growth rates of the ICT industry, as well as the absorption of new technologies, the interest shown by the new generation in this area, gives us the certainty that Moldova has great development opportunities in this direction, not just as a consumer, but as a ICT product and service provider too.

In the same context, I would like to mention that was approved the Broadband Development Programme for the years 2018 – 2020 and an Action Plan for its implementation. The overall objective of this document is the development of broadband electronic communications networks, which provide greater data transfer capacity.

In order to promote efficient management of radio spectrum resources, which will ensure the continued development of public broadband mobile broadband electronic communications networks and services was approved the "Radio Spectrum Management Program for the years 2013-2020".

In recent years Moldova has made a good progress in the development of Advanced Telecom Industry: Fiber – 90%, 4G – 98%, one of the highest Internet average speed – 43, 52 Mbps/2017 and for Digital literacy and access to networks: Internet penetration – 76%, 5th place for broadband affordability;

The active steps had been taken to develop e-governance systems throughout the country, as a result different Ministries and Governmental agencies had introduced many e-services. It is worth to mention, that in unprecedented short period successfully implemented transition from analog into the digital broadcasting, etc.

The Republic of Moldova aligns with the global efforts to strengthen cyber security; we are working a lot, with dedication and accountability in this field. An example of this is the organizer of the ”Cyber Week 2018” – Information Technology and Cyber Security Service, which was created due to the recent reform the central public administration. We have identified the optimal institutional formula to keep up with global trends and to have a system of information and cyber security technologies able to cope with the actual challenges.

Finally, I would like to mention that Moldova in cooperation with the relevant United Nations agencies, international organizations, foreign countries telecommunication administrations and business sector would carry out the necessary actions to continue building the Information Society and achieve sustainable development goals.

In conclusion, I would like to thank ITU for supporting the development of this innovative and important sector for the national economy and to wish you all enjoyable and productive sessions of the Plenipotentiary Conference.