Press release regarding the Visit to the Headquarters in Romania

Press release on the visit of Moldovan Agency for Interventions and Payment for Agriculture to the headquarters of the Agency of Payments and Intervention for Agriculture (APIA) and the Agency of Payments for Rural Development and Fisheries (APDRP) in Romania.
Between January 31 – February 2, the Agency for Interventions and Payment for Agriculture’s representatives visited the headquarters of the Agency of Payments and Intervention for Agriculture (APIA) and the Agency of Payments for Rural Development and Fisheries (APDRP) in Bucharest, Romania. The event was organised under the Tripartite Protocol for Interinstitutional Cooperation signed on November 18, 2010.
The workshop was opened with the greeting speech of: the State Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture of Romania – Adrian Radulescu, Director General of AIPA Florin Marius Faur, Deputy Director General of APDRP – Octavian Ciprian Alic, as well as the president of the Association of Romanian Consultants for Accessing European Funds – Radu Onofrei.
During the first workshop, the parties discussed issues related to human resources development and management and the economic department’s operating mechanism. The main topics of discussion were: human resources development based on the structure and organization of positions, ensuring the required staff within the institution, development of the staff recruitment process, training of the employees and their motivation, interaction between regional subdivisions and the administration of APIA and APDRP. During this workshop, the Human Resources department enjoyed the understanding and full support of the two HR Departments of APIA and APDRP, which shared their experience in this field in order to fully enable AIPA employees to reach the objectives and tasks of AIPA’s HR department.
During the second workshop, the participants discussed important issues related to the activities of the Economic Department regarding coordination and management of funds allocated for support activities under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), funds allocated from the state budget subsidies and funds allocated for the agency’s operation: county centres/ administrations.
On the second day of the visit, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Valeriu Tabara, had a meeting with AIPA’s Director General, Mr. Petru Maleru, APIA’s Director General – Florin Marius Faur, Octavian Ciprian Alic – APDRP Deputy Director General, Nicolae Ciubuc – AIPA’s Deputy Director General, Raluca Daminescu – APIA’s Methodology and International Relations Director, and Liviu Luca – AIPA’s head of foreign relations service. During this meeting the parties discussed the opportunity to enhance the cooperation relations, as well as to establish a joint direction of action. Then, two workshops were held during which APIA and APDRP experts presented their inspection and on-site control mechanism, as well as the information system development methods and techniques. Thus, the experts explained the administration of the Farmers’ Register and the Register of subsidy applicants and beneficiaries. They also discussed on the tasks and duties of the IT Department, consisting of the Information systems management Service, the Procedures integration service and IT security service, presenting an example of good practice for AIPA’s further activity. The APIA and APDRP specialists explained the existing mechanism for exchange of information between the regional offices and the head office, the method of drafting and publishing reports, the method of submitting the files selected for authorization and calculation of payments.
The agenda for the third day included a workshop dedicated to the topic of access to and absorption of EU funds available for the Republic of Moldova. During the workshop, the representatives of the Romanian Consultants Association for Access to EU Funds (ACRAFE), APIA, APDRP and SIVECO – the software developer for the two Romanian payment agencies shared their experience. Besides presentations of immediate interest, the AIPA representatives had useful discussions with some of the consultants at the event concerning a number of techniques and methods of developing business plans/ project plans within the European Union.

The main objective of these visits is to capitalize the capacities and opportunities for institutional development and continuous enhancing of cooperation at all levels, which is a priority for both AIPA and the farmers in our country. The objective also refers to the possibility to continue the dialogue with our western partners, including during the possible work visits.