Igor Grosu: Tofan will unveil his Cabinet by Friday; confidence vote set for July 21
The structure of the new Tofan Government will be announced by the end of this week, and the vote of confidence in Parliament is scheduled for Tuesday, July 21. This was stated by the Speaker of Parliament, Igor Grosu, who is also the leader of the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS), during the "I and the European Union" program on Moldova 1 on July 15.
"I believe that on Thursday, Friday at the latest, we will have clarity. I expressed my opinion even before the candidate was appointed, but I said that he must have a round of discussions with each minister. After that, we will sit down, discuss, confront opinions and make a decision", declared Igor Grosu.
Asked whether the designated prime minister will have the freedom to make changes to the government team, given that Grosu previously stated that most ministers had done their jobs well, the PAS leader said that Vasile Tofan will come up with his own proposals.
"I have always been flexible. Just this morning we had a discussion. I asked him what his impressions were, without asking for details by name. He told me that some of the impressions he had when he came were confirmed because he did not know each minister very well. He will also have proposals, but he said that he prefers to finalize all the discussions", said Grosu.
Commenting on the statements of some serving ministers who said that they were tired, but would like to continue the projects they had started, Igor Grosu stated that "fatigue is a relative notion".
"Some people ask me if I can still hold out. Even if there are ministers who say that they are tired, I told them that, from the people, they should say: let's drink some more water and, while we drink water, we rest and move on", said the President of Parliament.
The PAS leader highlighted the activity of the acting Minister of Education and Research, Dan Perciun, the acting Minister of Energy, Dorin Junghietu, and the acting Minister of the Environment, Gheorghe Hajder, claiming that the three have made important progress in the areas they lead.
"In education, we have a very active minister, who attracts resources and recently found funding for 20 model schools. In the energy field, things have been done that we could not even imagine a few years ago: interconnection projects and an almost tenfold increase in the capacity to produce renewable energy. The environment field was managed very well during the Nistru crisis. When the tragedy on the Nistru happened, the Romanians came, the Poles came with aid and so on", Igor Grosu pointed out.
The final decision on the composition of the future Government will, however, belong to the Prime Minister-designate after an assessment following consultations with the interim ministers.
"There are areas in which the results are visible. But, obviously, what really matters is what impressions and opinions the Prime Minister-designate will have", concluded Igor Grosu.
The Prime Minister-designate, Vasile Tofan, recently concluded his consultations with the interim ministers from the current Government. No member of the Cabinet has, for now, confirmed whether he will also be part of the new Executive, with the majority declaring that the decision belongs exclusively to the Prime Minister-designate.
Vasile Tofan's candidacy for the position of Prime Minister was officially submitted on July 11. The designated Prime Minister has 15 days to develop a government program and present the list of future ministers to Parliament.
Vasile Tofan is 44 years old. He is an investor, entrepreneur and a well-known representative of the business environment in the Republic of Moldova. He is currently a senior partner and member of the Investment Committee of Horizon Capital, one of the largest investment funds in Central and Eastern Europe, which manages investments of over 1.8 billion dollars and operates in Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova. In addition to his investment activity, Tofan is part of the boards of several organizations, including the American Chamber of Commerce in Moldova and the Startup Foundation.
According to his CV, Vasile Tofan is a graduate of Harvard Business School, where he earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA), and of Erasmus University Rotterdam, where he completed his master's and bachelor's degrees in Public Management, both with distinction. He was admitted to the master’s program a year ahead of schedule and has gained practical experience in areas such as public finance, public administration and healthcare.
Vasile Tofan speaks six languages: Romanian as his native language and English, Dutch, French, Ukrainian and Russian fluently.
In the vision of the prime minister-designate, the country’s transformation must start from a clear direction: “the most entrepreneur-friendly European country”. He stressed the need to strengthen trust and social equity, stating that reforms must begin by eliminating practices perceived as unfair.
