"Nezavisimaya Moldova" 03.12.1999

If Mayor General, in spite of the avalanche of letters and requests and unbelievable pressure of mass of economic problems of the capital, finds time for the profound investigation of the most up-to-date tendencies in development of the European cities for introduction of the best attainments in our city - it is quite good. Even more, it gives us hope that on the Chisinau level, that is a model for the whole republic, the positive improvement in the socio-economic development will be achieved, and that can be a milestone for the way out of the crisis for the whole country.

Mayor General of Kishinev, at the same time being the head of the Federation of Local and Regional Autonomous Bodies of the Republic of Moldova and Corresponding Member of the International Infromatization Academy, for a long time has been working about the concept of the social municipal development - "Socio-police". The idea of innovation interaction between the Eastern and Western Europe is assumed as a basis. The concept, destined for officials, can be generally taken as a strategic line of development for the whole country. In this line, the Socio-police is presented as a network of the mutually interrelated social relations taking into consideration the system character of socio-economic problems. One of the most efficient instruments on creation of the new social relations he considers to be the unified information city infrastructure.

Irrespective of our desire, the social aspects of the large city life, in spite of their seeming difference: education and utilities, energy, heat and water supply as well as medicine and others, have to be considered in indissoluble correlation. This is particularly actually today, when the problems concerning energy, heat and water supply of the settlements (built-up area) are in all their magnitude. It is hardly to overestimate the suggestion of the Mayor General to solve the energy-saving problems with the aid of the realization not at a separate industry level, but in general context of deep processing of vegetative raw material of the country on the basis of intellectual and technological potential of the city.

Thus, it is possible to overcome the stereotype of provincialism as a negative strategy of the so-called “overtaking development”, avoid the danger of the blind, mechanical borrowing some foreign “models” even with the sonorous mask. It is completely inadmissible for us, being the climbing up the stairs leading to nowhere.

The initiative of C. Ureceanu is especially valuable, being built not on the bare theory, but basing on the solid foundation of practice on creative formation the Kishinev as a European capital.

Kishinev can become the first socio-police in Europe

The difficulties of our time require the deep re-comprehension of the processes to be happening for the adequate decision adoption. We will not be able to solve the issues of the day if we do not take care of ourselves and about our tomorrow. Either we plan or we are planned. Without the independent perspective vision we are destined to follow the outdated recipes of the non-outstanding foreign “doctors”. We have questions to be asked by ourselves.

How will Moldova integrate itself in Europe? Should we put up with the role of the donor of raw materials or to recommend itself as an equal in rights partner in the international market? In this connection, it is especially important to understand, which place will be occupied by Kishinev in the map of non-material resources dominating in the modern economy.

I am convinced that the formation of our city as a single “territorial corporation” on the basis of the priorities of the social capital will provide Kishinev with the worth place among the European capitals.

New Europe of Cities

From the time immemorial, the cities were the centers of knowledge. Their role is even more important in the modern Europe. It is they, in spite of the formal priority of governments in governing hierarchy, which became the real subjects of economy of post-industrial societies. The sign of such changes is the term: “New Europe of Cities”.

The economic potential of “territorial corporations” can be compared with the largest transnational corporations. But the administration of the city is much more difficult. Like the large corporations, cities rival for profitable places on the international market of non-material resources.

For example, Paris succeeded in becoming a kind of capital of international congresses in the desperate struggle with New York, Singapore and Barcelona. Berlin and Hanover are ready to take part in the competition with Paris. To become a leader, Paris had to create suitable information and transport infrastructure, rebuilt all the system of hotels etc.

Ia yoi ?a i?aoaiaoao e Ieeai. Amsterdam made it its aim to become the international centre in the area of the medical biotechnology. Milan has the same claim.

However, there are examples not only rises but losses of the formerly won positions. For example, Vienna experiences not its best time. For the last thirty years, it lost its leadership in production of the musical, jewelry instruments in a number of traditional industries, not being able to sustain the competition with the Japanese. For the time being, Vienna elaborates the program of restitution of the glory of musical capital.

As a result of the fuel and energy crisis of 70s, the heavy industry of Detroit, the motorcar construction capital of the USA, collapsed. However, owing to the firmness and will of the dwellers, united with the program of the city restoration, it managed to overcome the crisis. Here, in the embankment there is a unique monument of the development program, which realization helped Detroit to have been restored.

The experience of these and other cities teaches us that there is no free space in the international market division. But to be the leader is not an inborn feature, this is the progress of those who are aware of their goals and abilities, who show their will and persistence in achieving the final result.

Social capital

Kishinev can and must occupy the merited place among the European capitals.

Mastering non-material resources is the main reserve for overcoming the devastating processes in our country. We have to find our place in Europe in this field. The two approaches are possible here: technocratic and humanitarian. The first one is the introduction of scientific knowledge into practice in accordance with the logic of the knowledge development in the science itself. The so-called “shock therapy” is a graphic example of the technocratic approach.

The second approach is a humanitarian one. This is the introduction of knowledge according to the logic of practice; its mouthpiece is the directorial body of all the structural units of management. A graphic example is the formation of the mighty Japanese corporations.

Historically, the technocratic approach proved to be dominating. However, when implementing the knowledge, connected with transformation of social relations in society, it predominantly becomes inadequate.

The discrepancy of the technocratic approach to the humanitarian character of reforms – this is the fundamental contradiction of the transformations to be conducted in Eastern Europe under the auspices of the international organizations.

In this connection, I want to draw special attention to the social aspect of the non-material resources. In the recent years, the radical sorting out the priorities between the social and economic aspects has happened in the developed countries. They have understood the impossibility of successful economic development without the so-called “social capital”. It especially comprises non-material categories: people’s trustfulness to the authorities and to each other, self-reliance and confidence in the future of their children and many other aspects that depend on strength and quality of social relations in the society.

This is confirmed by the sociological studies of the “territorial corporations” in Italy.

For investigation of phenomenon of the “social capital” the country has been visited by the president of the USA. At his urgent request, the premier-minister of Italy, Romano Prodi, presented a special report about the “territorial corporations” at the summit of “Big Seven”.

The idea of the “social capital” is not a new one for Kishinev. Precisely this idea underlies the socio-police concept where the social innovations and not the “technocratic” ones are priority-driven.

Socio-police is the city in which the infrastructure of the social relations is created; it provides the joint use of the resources and opportunities of all the city inhabitants and enterprises for the competitive economy creation.

Thus, the social benefit is supplied for the entire “territory corporation” – the base of prosperity of all the inhabitants of the city-corporation.

The “social capital” gives the new understanding to the role of the state in the market formation. The power is the non-material recourse. On becoming the powerful official, the businessman in addition to changing his or her status, gains a non-material asset of great value. Abuse of power damages the whole country undermining the confidence in the power itself.

The authority predestination is to be the non-material asset for achievement “social profit” for the whole city and not only the private business or branch-wise bodies of the executive power. Exactly in this context, it is necessary to carry out all the infrastructure transformations in the city – in the area of power engineering, information science, transport etc.

Real self-government

The present crisis is the crisis of confidence and consent, i.e. humanitarian in its nature. And it is impossible to find a way out of it without reorientation of the executive power of the country – from sharing the “material sources” up to mastering the “non-material” humanitarian sources of the social administration.

The local self-government is the main mechanism of consolidation and development of the “social capital”. The dilemma of “parliament or president republic” should be solved other than technocratically with reference to the abstract foreign experience, but in accordance with the criteria of the social capital applicable to the conditions of our reality.

Within the framework of the technocratic approach, to solve all the complex of problems the experts from outside are invited: officials of some ministries and organizations, foreign specialists, consultants etc. In this case, the city is considered to be the object of the technocrats’ activities. As it has been proved by practice, its effectiveness is not low. Notwithstanding the size of funds given by the foreign financial organizations, in any case, their most part remains outside the country.

Fundamentally another way of solving the problems, standing in front of the city, is connected with the formation and use of the benefits of the social capital. In this case, not outside experts, but the population itself, local state and non-state institutions are the subjects of decision of their own problems. The social relations, allowing uniting and enabling the whole potential of own resources are brought to the forefront.

We need the real self-government in order to prevent the social capital from decreasing and provide its rising. The city dwellers can and must become the real participants of creation of all the forms of self-governing, for instanse, taking part in the pilot projects in the city sectors. Just after it, on the basis of our experience confirmed by practice and not the abstract foreign one, it is possible to accomplish the preparation of the respective legal regulations. And not the other way round.

They are the city dwellers who decide what to do in the municipal territory having a right to suggest and realize transformation ensuring the “social profit” to the city and not the branch ministries.

The Main Priorities

The concept of socio-police and the idea of the “social capital” allow determining immediate and long-term priorities for the city-corporation. I consider it to be necessary to single out two of them: energy-saving and deep processing of the vegetative raw materials. The cost price of the production being produced in our country is influenced by the factor of power inputs. Taking into account that all the recourses are imported, we have to compensate the production costs at the expense of remuneration of labour reduction.

However the remuneration of labour has the natural inferior limit – the cost of the public utilities. The cost of the public utilities for the majority of the population exceeds salaries or pensions.

The way out of the present situation should be discovered otherwise than in so-called “multiversion” schemes of energy supply import. The change of creditors does not deliver us from the responsibility to return the credits.

We need to have the turning decisions enabling to reduce the share of the power inputs in the price cost of the production to dozens of percents to provide both the competitiveness of our production and the adequate remuneration of labour of the population. Up to this time, in the production and consumption of energy supply, the conditions of the economic benefit for those who save the energy have not been foreseen yet.

Energy-saving as the strategic direction of the re-building of the economic activities is, first of all, the problem of the mobilization of the social resources of management.

Autonomy, self-organization of the citizens is the social resource and its mastering together with energy-saving will help reduce the communal tariffs. The present chain the communal services “supplier-mediators-population” corresponding to the “vertical relations” not enjoying the equal rights, should be formed in a chain “supplier – the autonomous body – population”, where the autonomy of the citizens is presented at the level of a block of flats, microdistrict, sector, the whole city.

In such a way, the tariffs of the public utilities will be influenced both by state and the population through its autonomous organizations. This will effectively allow enabling those technological decisions that have been elaborated in the countries of the West and Japan having experienced the energy crisis of 70s.

The energy-saving in the today sense of this word is a strategic imperative and its observation will allow to begin the deep processing of the vegetative raw materials – the main wealth of the Moldovan fertile land.

Uniting of the potentials of the city and village on the basis of the deep processing of the vegetative raw material can provide, in outlook, the competitiveness of Moldova in Europe. Kishinev can become the centre of the applied biotechnology of the European level. It is appropriate to mention here that in the early 80s the Kishinev representatives raised the problem of the deep processing of the vegetative raw materials. The significance and actuality of this problem was realized by the Americans in full measure. But they did more than that. The idea of the deep processing of the raw materials underlay in the base of the national strategy of the USA in 1990.

Creative Consolidation

The socio-police formation is the way to the innovation and creative interaction of the transnational companies of Western and Eastern Europe in the territory of our capital. Now it is clear, that the competitive division of spheres of influence leads to the destruction of our social capital. Their consolidation in the city territory is an irreplaceable condition of the firm development and international development of our city. Local autonomous authorities’ guarantees from financial risks for foreign and domestic investors can become a premise for this consolidation.

I propose all the authorities to keep up the initiative on mobilization of the social recourses for the reduction of the specific power inputs and realization of long-term strategy of deep processing of vegetative raw materials. In my opinion, we jointly have to invite the international community, presented by the World Bank, European Bank for the Reconstruction and Development, European Council and other international organizations to take part in creation of the socio-police in the territory of our city.

Obviously, the corporations that do not have the union of the elite and majority are not competitive. The social profit will provide both the solidarity in the city-corporation and the competitiveness of the city-corporation in the international level.

I am convinced that Kishinev can become the first socio-police in Europe.

Serafim URECHEANU

Mayor General of Kishinev, the chairman of the Federation of Autonomous Bodies of the Republic of Moldova