Introduction
Moldova resides on the fringes of Europe.
Situated between Romania and Ukraine the culture of Moldova is heavily influenced by neighbouring regions. Moldova became a independent state on August the 27th of 1991 formerly breaking away from the collapsing USSR. The governmental structure is a republican democracy with a parliament of representatives.
Chisinau is the recognised capital of Moldova with a population of around 590,000. The total populace of the whole Moldovan sovereign territory is 4,317,483 including the disputed territory of Transnistria which will be covered in the “politics of Moldova” section.
According to most recent GDP figures for Moldova its national GDP is $9.956 billion dollars which equates to $2,300 per capita making it the poorest country in Europe behind Serbia. The nation is in the first stages of joining the European Union currently implementing the required policies of the European Neighbourhood policy (ENP) that is necessary to begin advancement to EU candidacy.
Moldova itself only occupies 34% of what is historically considered sovereign Moldovan territory; the rest is occupied by Romania (42%) and Ukraine (24%). About 71% of Moldova’s population is of Moldovan Descent, the rest being immigrants from neighbouring regions mainly Ukraine.
Since the break up of the USSR Moldova has been ruled by an elected communist party. On break away from the USSR Moldova quickly became involved in international politics by joining world institutions like NATO’s peace program. However the path to a market economy and a democratic government has been incredibly problematic for Moldova. According to the World Bank 38% of Moldovan GDP is comprised of remittances from foreign based Moldovan citizens. Emigration is a dangerous problem within Moldova nearly 25% of its population migrates out of the country to work; the majority of these workers do so illegally. Furthermore, around 20% of the Moldovan population is classified as living below the poverty line.
Technological usage within Moldova is surprisingly advanced in relation to that of mainstream Europe. Telephone line uptake is only around 1million people out of the total population. However, mobile phone uptake is around 2.9 million since mobile phones represent a more practical way for the Moldovans to be connected through telecommunications allowing them to leapfrog the landline stage. Internet connectivity covers around 40% of the population at high speeds of around 14.4mbps. Moldova was also the first nation in Europe to introduce High Definition mobile calls (known as HD Voice), which it undertook in late 2009.
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| Site Of Moldovan Gas Pipeline Explosion |
Considered independent from the influence of Russia Moldova still imports the majority of its energy supplies from Russia and has a Russian pipeline running through its sovereign territory. Diplomatically it is not that vulnerable to Russia’s dominance of oil and gas in Eastern Europe; during the Gazprom incident with Ukraine its supplies were largely unaffected. On the other hand, many analysts predict Moldova pursuing membership with the European Union could leave it in a similar situation to Ukraine.
Moldova has long been struggling to fight for a sense of independence in a way that can distinguish Moldova as separate to Romania. 75% of Moldovans speak Moldovan, most international analysts classify the Moldovan language as Romanian; the languages are almost identical in their nature and origin. Moldova has over 500,000 citizens who speak Russian as their first language due to the close economic and past political links with Russia. In the battle for cultural independence also comes the key question of whether all citizens of the principality of Moldavia (which as mentioned before is in much of Romania and Ukraine) should be classified as ethnically Moldovan.
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| Moldovan Vineyards |
Wine production has been a long standing tradition in Moldova allowing them to specialise in wine production and develop skills and techniques that only experience can create. This has meant wine production employs more people than any other industry in Moldova; around 27% of the workforce providing 20% of GDP. Only 5% of all wine production is consumed domestically, the other 95% is exported mainly to CIS countries. The speciality in viniculture has allowed for a thriving tourist market to develop focussed primarily on wine tasting and tours of vineyards and wine production facilities.