The Moldovan Regional Development and Construction Ministry (MDRC) and its development partners - Sweden, represented by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and the German government - today signed a memorandum of understanding on support for the project "Modernization of local public services in Moldova". According to the MDRC press service, the 7-million-euro-worth project aims at building the capacities of the local public administration in planning and budgeting, elaboration, development and adjustment of policies and strategies for decentralized planning processes. Also, it sees improving the development of the Northern, Central and Southern Regions as regards water supply, sewerage, waste management and energy efficiency of the public buildings. Regional Development and Construction Minister Marcel Raducan said that the Moldovan government committed to create equal chances for the regions to develop, and that it fulfils this commitment through different policies and instruments, one of which is the memorandum of understanding. German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Dirk Niebel said that this project sees the improvement of Moldovans' life and poverty reduction by improving the local public services. Swiss Ambassador to Moldova Ingrid Tesman said that the key goal is to direct this financial support to people, noting that the MDRC will cooperate with all the actors involved in this process to ensure the efficient management of money. The German government will contribute 4 million euros and Sweden 3 million euros for the implementation of this project.