Debate at FERM 2025 | “The Need for the Real Integration of Northern Moldova into Strategic Infrastructure and Cross-Border Investment Networks”
100 economic opportunities for the development of the Moldova Region on the A7 Highway route
REGIONAL ECONOMIC FORUM MOLDOVA 2025
19th Edition – Vatra Dornei, July 9–13, 2025
Thematic Panel:
Strategic Investments in the Extended Moldova Region
Speaker:
Ion Ștefanovici – President of CAPDR
Topic of the intervention:
“The need for real integration of northern Moldova – especially the city of Bălți – into strategic infrastructure and cross-border investment networks”
During Panel 1 – Strategic Investments in the Extended Moldova Region, held at the Regional Economic Forum Moldova 2025, voices from civil society, administration, and the business environment brought to the forefront a sensitive yet essential topic: the urgent need to connect northern Moldova – particularly the city of Bălți – to major infrastructure, investment, and cross-border cooperation projects.
One of the most compelling interventions came from Diana Grosu, president of the Human Rights Association Lex XXI, who made a direct appeal to the panelists.
“We are in pain. The Union Highway does not unite northern Moldova. We have only one functional airport in the country, and citizens from Bălți, like myself, spend years waiting at customs just to reach Iași or elsewhere. Why not revive the Bălți-Corlăteni Airport? What can the authorities do to bring real investments here?”
Ion Ștefanovici: “The Bălți Airport is strategic. Chișinău–Bălți relations must be urgently improved”
The response came from Ion Ștefanovici, president of the Center for Regional Development Analysis and Planning (CAPDR), who offered an insider’s realistic perspective on the region’s challenges and potential:
“Indeed, the airport in Bălți is strategic and should be used. The relationship between Chișinău and Bălți needs rapid remediation. I’ve been to Bălți twice, and the first time I found zero openness. Things have now matured. I’ve brought on board a collaborator with 20 years of experience at Bălți City Hall, who knows the local realities, and now I better understand what’s happening there.”
He welcomed recent regional changes and referenced concrete examples.
“You have a free economic zone and a very capable director, Mr. Ciobanu. I don’t understand why he wasn’t kept in his role at Invest Moldova. He would have done a great job.”
“We don’t want to take your students. We want cooperation, not competition”
The CAPDR president emphasized that Romania does not come to Moldova with an expansionist agenda in education or human resources, but with a desire for collaboration.
“We didn’t bring the University of Suceava to Bălți to take your students. We do not wish to promote Romanian education to the detriment of local institutions. We want cooperation, not competition.”
In the same spirit, he advocated for an integrated cross-border approach to the Ungheni region – on both sides of the Prut.
“Perhaps the part of Ungheni in Moldova and the one in Romania can be envisioned as a single entity – an extended free economic zone.”
Strategic connectivity: bridges, economic zones, and legal cooperation
Ion Ștefanovici emphasized the need for common facilities and strategic regional planning, especially in the context of cross-border infrastructure development.
“When a bridge leads toward the European Union, i.e., Ungheni–Romania, we must think about how to create shared facilities. That energy in Bălți and Ungheni is of the same kind.”
He illustrated this cross-border collaboration through the presence of a Romanian law firm operating extensively in Moldova.
Invited by Ion Ștefanovici to contribute his perspective, Sergiu Bivol, country director at the international law firm Vernon David, highlighted the private sector’s role in facilitating bilateral investments.
“We have offices in Chișinău and Bucharest. We assist Romanian investors wanting to cross the Prut into Moldova and vice versa. We have 20 years of experience in business law and understand the business environment’s challenges very well. Through collaboration with authorities, we also have solutions.”
Conclusions: Northern Moldova – a region with potential, but in urgent need of connectivity
The shared message from this panel is clear: northern Moldova must be genuinely integrated into regional development plans. Not just through national strategies or promises, but through concrete infrastructure projects, administrative support, and active cross-border partnerships.
“We build together. We make mistakes, but we learn. What matters is not to sugarcoat reality, but to address it,” concluded the CAPDR leader with realism and determination.
