Iasi City Prepares 73 Investment Projects to Secure EU Funding

The City of Iasi has defined 73 priority investment projects to be implemented until 2013. Most of them require non-reimbursable EU funding, which the City can apply for following its designation as an economic growth pole. The final 73 projects were selected out of 272 proposals.

The list of finalists includes the restoration of the basement of the house where chronicler Grigore Ureche used to live, the restoration of the Cub site, the urban regeneration of the Cuza Voda district, the construction of a modern bus hub, the construction of the City Museum, the development of the City"s north-south transportation axis including the Octav Bancila tunnel and the establishment of a zoological garden. The initial list of 272 proposals was analyzed by the team tasked to create the Integrated Development Plan for the Growth Pole. "Upon analyzing the projects, careful consideration was given to the need for the investment, the metropolitan impact and the actual stage of the project," said Cosmin Coman, Strategy Director within the Iasi City Hall.

The creation of the Integrated Development Plan for the Growth Pole started in end-July 2008 under the coordination of the international consultancy firm WYG International Ltd. and was completed, for that phase, through the submission of a draft project to the Ministry of Regional Development and Housing. The project submission session started in December, upon the release of the official version of the Financing Guidelines for Priority Axis 1 - Support to Sustainable Development of Urban Growth Poles of the Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013.

Cosmin Coman explained that, as a Growth Pole, the City of Iasi would be able to access non-reimbursable funding through this programme only after the elaboration of the Integrated Development Plan for the Growth Pole. In this phase, the municipal authorities have decided to prepare the project fiches for the first 20 projects.