Present Situation

Republic of Moldova is situated in the South-central part of the European continent, in an area of temperate-continental climate. Moldova has borders with two countries: Romania in the West and Ukraine in the North-East and South. A treaty signed with Ukraine in 1999 gives Moldova access to Danube, although it represents 650 meters. The surface of the country is 33 845 km2. Among the ex-soviet Republics only Armenia is smaller than Moldova. The Republic of Moldova is divided in 32 "raions," 3 municipalities (Chisinau, Balti and Bender) and 2 regions with a special status – Gagauzia and Transnistria. The status of the latter remains a disputed subject.

This map has been designed, in 2003, by The State Agency of Cadastre from Republic of Moldova.

Presently, the Republic of Moldova is member of the United Nations and its specialized agencies, of the Council of Europe, OSCE, and of the Council of Euro-Atlantic Partnership. Moldova participates in the regional and sub-regional cooperation process of the Central-European Initiative (CEI), the Commonwealth of the Independent States (CIS), the South-European Cooperation Initiative (SECI), the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, the Danube Commission, the Stability Pact in the South-Eastern Europe, GUAM etc.

Moldova is a parliamentary republic. The Parliament has one Chamber with 101 members chosen each 4 years in universal, direct, secret and free elections. The Parliament appoints the President of the State. The President proposes the candidate for the Prime-Minister. After being invested by the Parliament, the Prime-Minister forms the Government.

Currently, the governing party is the Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova (CPRM). The results of the anticipated parliamentary elections from February 25, 2001 gave CPRM 71 of the 101 member mandates, allowing it to form a parliamentary majority able to modify the Constitution and name the President of the State. Thus, on the 4th of April 2001 the First-Secretary of the Communist Party, Vladimir Voronin, was elected the President of the Republic of Moldova.

During the parliamentary elections from March 6 2005, the Communist Party gained 56 mandates out of 101. Again CPRM had the parliamentary majority, but no longer the possibility of modifying the Constitution. On the 4th of April 2005 Vladimir Voronin was reelected for the second presidential mandate, being voted by the Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova and also by some members of the opposition.

According to the 2004 census the population of the Republic is 3 383 332 inhabitants. Moldova is the less urbanized country among the former soviet republics, with the exception of the states from Central Asia. Among them, Moldova has the highest population density. The ethnic composition is as follows: Moldovans/Romanians - 78.2%; Ukrainians – 8.4%; Russians – 5.8%; Gagauz - 4.4%; Bulgarians – 1.9 %; other – 1.3 %.

Moldova is divided in two regions: Basarabia situated in the West, between the rivers Prut and Nistru and Transnistria in the East, a narrow strip of land beyond the Nistru River, which effectively functioned as an autonomous State after the 1991-1992 conflict.

The Republic of Moldova is an agro-industrial country. Agriculture and industry contribute with 51% to the Gross Domestic Product of the Republic. 50.8% of the active population works in the agricultural sector. The agro-alimentary production represents 60% of the exports. The land (predominantly black soil) covers almost three quarters of the surface of the country. The favorable climate offers the possibility of gathering up to two harvests per year.

The industry is mostly specialized in food-processing, but it is also represented by the light industry, chemical industry, wood processing and heavy industry (metallurgy and cement factories), whose production is mostly sold on the Russian markets. The heavy industry is concentrated in Transnistria and depends on raw materials provided from Russia.