Tribuna.md: Gheorghe Duca: Politicians should be aware of how critical investments in people are
2013-04-13
In an exclusive interview for TRIBUNA, Gheorghe Duca, the President of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova (ASM), talked about what is going on with the Government in his view, the governing priorities which should be promoted and his political sympathies.
T: You are a Government member ex officio. We would like to know if there is smooth communication between the members of the Cabinet of Ministers. Do you feel comfortable in this Cabinet of Ministers?
Gh.D.: There has always been communication between ASM and the Government. There is no problem with me or the Governor Mihail Formuzal, who just like me was appointed ex officio, or in the ministers representing different parties, because in principle we have always provided feedback when they needed it. The final decision belongs to the political body- the Executive or the Parliament. It is not about feeling comfortable or not. It is all about approach.
T: Is ASM’s voice heard by the head of the Executive?
Gh.D.: Personally, both at the Government meetings and in mass media I have always advocated for investments in human resources. There should be a policy for investing in people, because corruption, injustice and other social vices arise from dissatisfaction with or shortage of something. However, there will never be enough of everybody or everything. There will always be reserves, because, if we live like in Heaven, we will then feel a sort of stagnation, „decay”. Everything lies in approach.
I also believe that the scientific community is unfairly misunderstood. Education, research and innovation deserve more support. Innovation is added value to any society. Today the natural or human resources do not add a similar value as before. Technologies help save resources, which are vital for the people – water, light etc. and secure good performance and competitive products. There should, therefore, be a serious policy to support education, research and innovation and, consequently, the entrepreneurship, because entrepreneurship, above all, needs skilled people and innovations. Entrepreneurship is the engine of the economic development. That is why the approach often to sideline the private sector and idealize education is strange to us. Huge amounts of funds have been invested over the latest years in education, in various optimizations, but what should the students do after graduation, what should the PhDs do after defending their research papers, what should the researchers do after inventing innovations?
Ultimately, education turns into an export factor of the human potential. That is why the country’s policies should focus on the use of the people’s capacities. Education and research build these capacities, while the economic policy creates the environment conducive to their use. Only then will we be able to stop our people from leaving the country.
In the meantime the innovations could be imported along with the new investments. Look at the Baltic countries, where education is the number one priority, followed by research and innovation and entrepreneurship.
T: Are you often reproached that ASM receives too many funds from the state budget?
Gh.D.: This is a wrong approach. The Academy of Sciences does not have its own resources. We have 20 million Euros for all the science. Estonia, which has 1 million 200 thousand people, has 7 thousand researchers and a budget amounting to 380 million Euros for science, while we have only 3 thousand researchers in Moldova and a budget of 20 million. What are we talking about?! An electronic microscope costs 1.5 million Euros. How many microscopes can we buy with this money, what can we do with them?
The problem lies in something else. Our leaders are quite nice people – the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the Parliament and the President and the politicians, all of them struggle, want something, but they should be aware, and not only they, but the entire society, of the importance of the investments in people. Look at Estonia, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia – Communist countries in the past, which today are very close to the indicators of developed countries like Germany, Great Britain, and USA.
The approach that the major priority in our country is fight against corruption is strange. If all our policies and money focus on the fight against corruption, then we have to find the money to fight against this scourge. You cannot fight against corruption with the help of money. This is a very wrong way to go. You can fight against corruption by educating a harmonious, knowledgeable personality that will have the necessary opportunities to make a career in Moldova.
T: You are a member of the Filat Government and you were also a member of Tarlev and Greceanii Governments. Could you make a comparison between them? When was your cooperation with the Government smoother?
Gh.D.: Every prime minister has own qualities and each of them led the Government. Some did it on behalf of somebody, others on their own, but they were all different.
All of them were committed to the administrative system and were good administrators. The Government today is heavily criticized, but I should say that it has done a lot of good things. Usually, the good things are not talked about, or known and advertised. And the fact that the successful stories are not made known is bad. Unfortunately, this Moldovan feature of ours has made us hit our own people. We should support those who brought value added, who are the image of our country and
have capacities. And you will see that this way only will we be able to change things in our country.
I am still positive about the future and I think that we are now on a truly philosophical, dialectical path – the struggle of opposites, negation of the negation and I believe that it will lead us to where it is better.
T: Do you have any political sympathies?
Gh.D.: I was a member of the Democrat Party and now, even if not a member anymore, my political beliefs are still democratic and liberal, or I could say liberal-democratic. I have always been a democrat. In all the teams that I managed all the issues were dealt with in a democratic manner.
