MOLDOVA-RUSSIA COOPERATION PROGRAM PRESENTED IN CHISINAU

"New Markets and Technologies for Developing Innovative Cooperation between Moldova and Russia" is the name of a new program, presented in Chisinau on Monday.

Head of the RosSotrudnichestvo [Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation] Mikhail Davydov said at the ceremony that his organization is the coordinator of this project, proposed in the framework of the intergovernmental cooperation between CIS member countries.

"In Chisinau, the RosSotrudnichestvo has been long successfully working with representatives of the Moldovan Academy of Sciences (MAS) and its institutes. Within the proposed program we hope for further promotion of scientific branches", he said.

Presidential Advisor Corneliu Popovici said that well-known Russian scientific centers back in Soviet times played a great role in the development of the Moldovan science.

"Unfortunately, the number of scientific programs with Russia has fallen over recent years, but we hope that within the above-mentioned project the science of the two countries will reborn. Moldova needs a scientific breakthrough, thus it is necessary to implement new programs in the field of innovations", he said.

Head of the RosSotrudnichestvo Department for Cooperation with CIS Countries Sergey Malenko said that Moscow remembers well the Moldovan researches and achievements.

"The program was already joined by Kazakhstan and Belarus. We hope for interaction with Moldovan researchers in such fields as agriculture, physics and biology, chemistry, environmental disciplines. Today, as never before, we should go further on the way of rehabilitating old connections in science", the official proposed.

MAS Deputy President Ion Tighineanu said that only in the framework of one of Russian research funds, Russian and Moldovan scientists worked on 88 projects in 2008-2010.

"Later we launched eight more projects together with one of Russian humanitarian research funds. Within the agreement between Russia and the European Commission, the project EraNetRus+ was approved and works are being conducted on three projects within this European subsidizing. However, scientists are working not only on the CIS or EU programs. We firmly adhere to the position that science does not have borders and it should develop in every possible way", the MAS representative stressed.