A new money transfer service between the Italian and Moldovan Post Offices was launched today. Attending the event was Prime Minister Iurie Leanca.

“This is a huge thing for our citizens to see another benefit from the fact that we take over European standards. This is a first agreement, agreements with Spain and Portugal are to enter in force, I hope we will continue with other countries as well. I hope very much to succeed to implement this with the eastern countries too. As a result, the money will come home legally, avoiding schemes that are often dangerous, and costs are minimal as compared to what has been paid so far. I hope that the next step will be initiation of negotiations on the social assistance agreement”, Leanca said.

The new service allows Moldovans living in Italy to make transfers at a 5-euro rate for any amount up to 1,000 euros. Thus, the payment addressees from Moldova may take money either in euro or in lei at all Moldovan and Italian post services.

Today alone, early in the morning, transfers amounting to 6,000 euros were made. This service is possible following an agreement between the Moldovan and Italian postal operators, which allows making money transfers via over 9,000 Italian post offices to 1,148 Moldovan post offices.

The new money transfer service was negotiated and developed between the state enterprise Posta Moldovei (Moldova’s Post) and Poste Italiane in January-September 2014, with the support of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Moldova and National Bank of Moldova, within the Joint Global Programme IOM/UNDP/UN Women Mainstreaming Migration into National Development Strategies, the second phase.