PARLIAMENT APPOINTS NEW NBM PRESIDENT

Finance Minister Octavian Armasu was appointed as new President of the National Bank of Moldova (NBM) on Thursday by votes of 54 of 58 present deputies of the Parliament.

Armasu was proposed by Speaker of the Parliament Andrian Candu, who said that the new NBM head will assume his new office on November 30, when the mandate of the incumbent President Sergiu Cioclea will expire.

"Armasu has a 15-year experience in the field of finances - 12 years in the post of financial director of international company Sudzucker and three more years as minister of finance. Thus, he meets requirements to candidate for this post", he maintains.

Answering to questions, Armasu said that he will not publish the report of the Kroll detective agency, because the document is not in the NBM.

"It was transmitted to the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO), which is engaged in the fraud investigation and the returning of the stolen funds. The National Bank is not empowered to hold investigations, it is the prosecution service that is. The NBM has a role in this process, while I have to understand the stage we are at. So far, the NBM has fulfilled all the liabilities", he said.

Armasu stressed that over the time of work in the Ministry of Finance, he participated in conducting of many reforms in the financial and banking sector and was conducting negotiations with the IMF together with Cioclea.

Chairman of the parliamentary Standing Committee on Economy, Budget and Finance Stefan Creanga thanked Armasu for work in the Ministry of Finance, for efficient reforms, which resulted in the 2019 state budget.

At the moment of voting there was almost no opposition in the sitting room, as the factions of Communists and Socialists have left the Parliament even before the sitting, while some MPs from the Liberal Party and the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova did not participate in the Thursday's sitting for various reasons.

Infotag's dossier: The 49-year-old Armasu became the 4th president of the National Bank of Moldova (NBM). Bankers regard him as a successor of Cioclea and have no doubts that he will continue Cioclea's course of reforms. Infotag's interviewees pointed at the fact that the NBM and the Finance Ministry have never had such partnership relations before as under Cioclea and Armasu, who were not just partners, but also friends.

Armasu is Minister of Finance since 2016. Prior to his ministerial post, he was financial director of the Sudzucker Moldova (Germany), which is holding over 60% of Moldova's sugar beet market of Moldova.

Armasu graduated from Moldova Technical University. He is a certified financial analyst, graduated from the CFA Institute (US). He is married, has two children, speaks Romanian, Russian and English.