The Working Groups on car transport and infrastructure development met in the first meeting of the current year

On February 20, 2025, the first meeting of this year's Working Groups for the development of car transport and road infrastructure took place, with the participation of experts from Chișinău and Tiraspol.

At the beginning of the meeting was emphasized the need to conduct an open and constructive dialogue in order to identify solutions to improve transport connections between the two banks of the Nistru River.

The experts from the Public Services Agency proposed to synchronise the working hours at the vehicle registration offices in the cities of Tiraspol and Râbnița, according to a single timetable „Monday-Friday”, as these two territorial subdivisions are the only ones in the Republic of Moldova operating on a schedule of „Tuesday-Saturday”. Standardisation of the work schedule of these points will help to improve the quality of the services provided by the Agency.

Moreover, the Agency’s experts stressed the need to diversify the programming channels for registration services in the vehicle registration points, by using the unique number 149 09, so that residents of the Transnistrian region have faster access to the range of services available.

Chișinău demanded the abolition of the illegal fees applied by Tiraspol for the movement of goods by vehicles with a total weight of over 18 tons, pointing out the discriminatory nature of such fees, which harm economic relations between the two banks of the Nistru River. Instead, it was proposed to study the possibility of repairing damaged roads in order to improve the regional road infrastructure.

Regarding the issue of registering vehicles imported after April 24, 2018, with neutral license plates, the Customs Service expert informed about the measures taken in this direction.

Tiraspol returned to the proposal to examine the possibility of registration with neutral model plates of ambulances in the Transnistrian region, being reiterated by Chișinău the legal conditions and international standards to be observed for their registration in the Republic of Moldova, because they have special series and carry out strictly regulated activities. In addition, the issue is limited to the imperative of reintegrating the profile centers in the region into the single national health system.

It is worth noting that for several years, ambulance teams in the Republic of Moldova have been constantly responding to all calls coming from the left bank of the Nistru River and the municipality of Bender, providing rapid transfer and the necessary medical care on the right bank of the Nistru River (the number of team departures from the Center region to the eastern districts of the country: December 2024 – 75, January 2025 – 95).

As regards national model driving licences, it was specified that they are obtained at an active pace, approximately 50% of drivers in the Transnistrian region currently hold such licences.

Regarding Tiraspol's idea to approve „neutral” driver's licenses, it was emphasized that this is incompatible with the requirements of international conventions and the national regulatory framework, which directly provide for the obligation to identify the state that has acceded to international obligations, the national body that issued the license, and to provide, in accordance with the law, a confirmation of the right to drive a vehicle of the corresponding category.

The dialogue on technical issues at expert level will continue in the coming period.