On 22-25 October, representatives of the Rural Support Service (RSS) Kristīne Ilgaža, Aiga Mālere and Juris Cvetkovs met with the staff of the Moldovan Agency of Intervention and Payments in Agriculture (AIPA) in Chisinau, Moldova, to discuss the work of the RSS, IT system development, communication strategy, internal control system, audits, personnel policy, project administration process and other issues.
The Latvian experience of accession to the European Union was quite an important topic of discussion: the establishment of the Agency, the implementation of the conditions for receiving aid and the results achieved.
At the same time, AIPA experts described how the Moldovan agency provides support in agriculture, what priorities have been set, how different digital solutions are implemented.
Kristine Ilgaža, Director of the Strategic Communication and Customer Management Department of the RSS, stressed that the cooperation needs to continue: "This was the first time the two agencies met and got to know each other's work. There are plans to extend the cooperation and further directions and themes have been identified, many of them practical tasks where the RSS can share its experience with Moldovan colleagues. For example, AIPA colleagues would like support in developing a crisis communication plan, a methodology for various controls, a risk management system and many other issues."
A cooperation project is planned for 2025.
The visit was supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' grant project "Support for the financing of feasibility study visits for development cooperation projects in the identified beneficiary countries of the Republic of Latvia".
