MOLDOVA, A COUNTRY IN TRANSITION

Moldova is a country where its past is meeting its future.  As you travel from the villages to larger cities like Chisinau you will find ghost of the soviet along side a growing middle class and a cosmopolitan atmosphere along Bulevardul Ștefan cel Mare (King Stephen The Great Boulevard) where many young people, who easily embrace capitalism, hang out and trendy high-end clothing stores are found.

Today is Labor Day and the entire country is on holiday.  A couple of my colleagues went for a stroll this morning to buy  last minutes souvenirs before leaving and they ran into demonstrations by pro-Russian supporters.  The protestors tried to give one of my American colleagues a communist flag, which he of course refused.  Th US Embassy reported that the demonstrations and protest are expected to last throughout the weekend.

From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.

Karl Marx

Many of my Moldovan colleagues express a strong desire to leave the old soviet system behind and some have anti-Russian sentiments.  Several told me many older citizens would like to return to the soviet system because they jobs and prices were stable, even though many times there were food  and energy shortages. Nonetheless Moldova seems to be a country that is moving Westward in its development.

Yesterday we met with Nicolae Olaru who is the Vice Minister of Agriculture and later the National Commission for Financial Markets to discuss our initial findings on credit unions and their efforts to help small farmers and business owners to gain access to small low-cost loans.  Mr Olaru was a member of Parliment and one of the founders of the first Federation of Credit Unions.  The people of Moldova seem to have a good man who understands the importance of having strong financial cooperatives to help the average citizen.  We met for several hours answering their questions about American laws governing credit unions.  They are very interested in learning from our system and adopting those laws and procedures that will help them evolve their credit union system as quickly as possible.  The Vice Minister said “We (Moldova) needs to hurry up slowly.”  What he meant by that statement was that they a lot of amendments to the current laws governing their credit union but that the must do it in a deliberate way so as to end up with laws that will ensure the future of their credit union system.

I invited Alina, who is the head regulator of micro finance and credit unions to dinner where she could continue to ask out delegation questions that we didn’t get to during our long meeting.  We all met at a restaurant close to our hotel and she spent the next two hours grilling us about how credit unions operate in the United States.  I learned later that this type of informal meeting had never been done before and our invitation and presence had help solidify the relationship between the government regulator and the credit union leaders in Moldova.

Our trip culmination trip ended with a visit to the wine cellars of Cricova, which is the second largest wine cellar in Moldova, after Milestii Mici (largest in the world).

Cricova has over 75 miles of limestone tunnels in which about half have been converted into underground wine, production, storage, museum, and tasting rooms.  In one area we saw bottles of wine that were about 100-years old.  Some of the wealthiness people in the world like John Kerry and state dignitaries like Russian President Putin  keep a private reserve.  We asked if Bill and Hillary Clinton kept a private reserve there and the tour guide said no.  Some of us were skeptical about her denial.

In this picture I’m standing at the head of a tunnel that houses 1-million bottles of sparkling wine about 300 feet below the surface.  The tunnel was so long I couldn’t see the end.  The village of Cricova has been around for a few hundred years and these tunnels have existed since the 15th century.  Cricova Winery is one of those special places that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.  Nazi Germany tried and failed to acquire these tunnels and the wine they held.  This limestone labyrinthine could be and has been successfully defended from invading armies for hundred of years.

Moldova is a beautiful country albeit a bit of an enigma.  I see great potential in her but I also see a country who is land locked and stuck between world powers.  Hopefully, Moldova will be able to finally be able to realize greatness and become a shining jewel of Eastern Europe.