​NBM PRESIDENCY COMMISSION ELECTS LEADERSHIP, AGREES ON WORK TIMEFRAME

The ad hoc commission, formed to select a candidate for president of the National Bank of Moldova, sat on Wednesday morning, and elected a body leadership, agreed upon an action plan, commission regulations and timing for holding the contest.

MP Marcel Raducan, D, proposed Liberal Democrat Stefan Creanga, Chairman of the parliamentary Standing Committee for Economic Policy, Budget and Finance, as candidate for ad hoc commission chairman. Liberal MP Lilian Carp put forward yet another candidate – Adrian Lupusor, Executive Director of the independent Expert-Grup analytical center, a non-governmental organization specializing in economic researches and public policies.

Despite Lilian Carp’s insistence that the commission should be headed by a civil society representative, parliamentarian Stefan Creanga was elected chairman by a majority of votes. And Ludmila Cobzar, Dean of the Finance Department at Moldovan Academy of Economic Studies (ASEM), was elected commission secretary.

The commission discussed its rules of procedure and criteria to be used at selecting candidates. Creanga offered an opinion that the National Bank must be headed by a high professional politically neutral and independent in his thoughts and actions.

“We don't know yet how candidates will be demonstrating their independence. But by observing these criteria, we will be able to move to a next stage of discussion – the candidate’s vision of currency and fiscal policies, struggle against inflation, attaining of economic growth”, he said.

The deputy said that so far, the commission has no candidates for NBM President, but the situation may change by the commission’s next working meeting scheduled for Friday.

On Tuesday, Moldovan Parliament Chairman Andrian Candu stated at the commission’s constituent meeting that the deadline for selecting a candidate is November 6.

As already reported by Infotag, on October 2 Andrian Candu signed an order to form the ad hoc commission to select a candidate for the NBM presidency, after the NBM President Dorin Chirtoaca had tendered resignation on September 22.

The commission has included members of parliament Stefan Creanga (LD), Marcel Raducan (D), Vladimir Golovatiuc (Soc), Lilian Carp (L); vice-president of the Moldovan Academy of Sciences Ion Guciac, Chairman of the Moldovan Bankers Association Nicolae Dorin, Expert-Grup Executive Director Adrian Lupusor, Sergiu Gaibu of IDIS Viitorul Institute for Development and Social Initiatives, and Ludmila Cobzar of ASEM. And Mindaugas Kaceraskis of the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Moldova was appointed as the commission’s international observer.

The Communist Party refused to delegate its representatives to the commission in a belief that the ruling alliance must elect a new NBM president by itself.