Today, the Foreign Ministry held a meeting of the Public Expert Council under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PMR. The topic of the forum was: “The blockade of Pridnestrovie at the present stage: the negative factors and ways to overcome them.” Leaders of public associations of the republic, as well as the authorities’ representatives of financial and economic body were invited to participate in the event.
Opening the meeting of the Council, the Foreign Minister of Pridnestrovie Nina Shtanski noted that the main theme of the Address of the President of the PMR, voiced the day before, was the difficult socio-economic situation in the republic, escalating mainly due to external factors. “In order to effectively address the tasks set by the President, and overcome the crisis there is a need for strengthening the dialogue between the authorities and society. Consolidation of our forces, concentration of intellectual resources is now crucial,”- said Nina Shtanski.
The Minister said that in the framework of the Public Expert Council the Foreign Ministry of the PMR hopes to develop creative proposals for the medium and long term, which will help to preserve the social and economic stability in the country. However, as stressed Nina Shtanski, the economic situation under the influence of external factors changes every day, and requires the state attention and appropriate response in the area of foreign policy. She emphasized that the efforts of the Public Expert Council and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are now focused primarily on supporting business entities of the republic. The head of the Pridnestrovian diplomacy expressed hope that the interaction with Pridnestrovie’s neighbours - Moldova and Ukraine - will soon get a boost to the development in a positive way.
During the conversation with experts the minister noted that the Pridnestrovian economy has significant resources for internal development. In particular, now solving the issues of creating the conditions for import substitution, especially food, comes to the fore. Thus, the minister said that over the past year, the country imported meat products in the amount of 32 million US dollars and dairy products - 18 million US dollars. These products could be produced by domestic enterprises with the support of the state. During the meeting it was noted that the state task is to support domestic producers, so that the republic could better provide itself with food products.
During the communication experts made a number of proposals to optimize the socio- economic situation in the country by seeking internal reserves. In addition, attention was drawn to the need to intensify efforts through public diplomacy.
Proposals developed during the round table can become the basis of a “road map” of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the dialogue with foreign partners.
