Between September 16 and 20, civil representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and the Environment, the Land Relations and Cadastre Agency, the National Bureau of Statistics, the Electronic Governance Agency, as well as specialists from the North, Center, South and Regional Development Agencies UTA Gagauzia, from the Regional Policy and External Cooperation and Project Management sections, participated in a study visit to the Czech Republic.
The visit was organized within the project “Regional development in the Republic of Moldova: support for the implementation of regional strategies using the Geographic Information System (GIS)”, funded by the Cooperation Agency for International Development of the Czech Republic and carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and the Environment in partnership with the Czech Agency GEOtest and the Northern, Central, South and Gagauzia Regional Development Agencies. The purpose of the study visit was the exchange of experience, the transfer of good practices from the Czech Republic to the Republic of Moldova regarding the development of strategic planning, urban development and projects. investments by using geospatial tools and data, establishing contacts and encouraging collaboration in the field of mapping, data collection and offering innovative services, digitized to the population. The basic objective of this activity is to observe laying down of good Czech practices by civil servants and specialists from the Republic of Moldova, but also learning the lessons learned by the Czech local public authorities in the field of local electronic services, the use of geospatial data, taking over the advanced experience registered in the respective field by the municipalities and the engineering institutions providing the services academic environment and other actors from the host country. The study visit was organized by the Czech Agency GEOtest in collaboration with the Cooperation Agency for International Development of the Czech Republic. The study visit program was an active one, comprising several public institutions, localities and specialists in different fields. Thus, on the first day of the visit, the participants visited the headquarters of the GEOtest Agency in Brno, where they met with Lubomír Klímek, the director of the institution. They found out that it is one of the largest and most important Czech companies dealing with environmental protection through geology and environmental remediation, as well as in geotechnical and hydrogeological research and they became acquainted with the activities, researches, programs and projects implemented by GEOtest in the field water and rock protection, waste management, geotechnical and engineering geology, hydrogeology, remediation activities for environmental protection.Several specialists from the Czech Agency GEOtest, including Jan Oprchal, Jiří Hladík, Tony Kusbach et al. they presented extensive information about the national geospatial data infrastructure. At the same time, they made a brief presentation of the applications and projects of innovation and research developed by GEOtest during the last 10 years of activity. Representatives of the institutions responsible for implementing the regional development policy in the Republic of Moldova had the opportunity to learn new things by hearing more. relevant presentations within the Department of Geography of the Masaryk University in Brno, which is the second largest and most important educational and research institution in the Czech Republic and the main institution of higher education in Moravia. One of the top priorities of Masaryk University is scientific research. In order to reach a leading position in research, grant competitions, the university has made considerable financial investments – especially in the newly built campus – in order to increase research and teaching capacity, to facilitate the development of knowledge transfer tools and to improve support for research and innovation.
The program of the visit of the Moldovan specialists also provided for a number of important visits to the Czech Development Agency (CENIA), subordinated to the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic, the Cooperation Agency for International Development of the Czech Republic and the Institute for Planning and Development in Prague.
They also toured several public authorities and GIS departments in the municipalities of Brno and Hradec Kralove, which developed and provided free public services to the population through geoportals and information programs developed with the support of the specialized company T-MAPY.
Following the study visit to the Czech Republic, the specialists of the Northern, Central, Southern and UTA Regional Development Agencies Gagauzia are going to apply the knowledge and practices accumulated in the process of elaborating regional plans, but also in the graphic presentation of concrete projects. It is expected that the results of this project will trigger a new type of strategic planning in the Republic of Moldova, making the development regions thus more attractive to investors.
