Regional Representative | FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia

Regional Representative: Viorel Gutu

Viorel Gutu has gained over 30 years of experience in agricultural development, enterprise restructuring, structural reforms, and private business development through his involvement in the public and private sector, and implementation of international projects.

A national of the Republic of Moldova, Viorel Gutu was appointed to the post of FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia in February 2024. Prior to that he served as FAO Subregional Coordinator for Central Asia and Representative for Türkiye and Uzbekistan.

He joined FAO in 2014 as the head of the FAO Tajikistan office, leading the Country Office in establishing productive relations with the national government and key donors.

Before joining FAO, Gutu was Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry in the Republic of Moldova. In this position, he was responsible for the coordination, monitoring and evaluation of strategic policy implementation in agriculture and rural development. He also served as an economic affairs officer with the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor, where he dealt with peacekeeping operations, poverty alleviation and the prevention of emergency situations. He holds a doctoral degree in economics.

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FAO urges efficient and sustainable water management at the Hamburg Sustainability Conference

13/06/2025

Water security is key for ensuring food security and countries can rely on the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to improve water management at the farm, national, and transboundary levels, as well as to facilitate to access innovative financing. This was the central message of Viorel Gutu, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia at the 2025 Hamburg Sustainability Conference. Gutu spoke at the panel discussion ‘Water, Food, Future: Navigating the global water crisis for food security’ on 2 June.

Using the power of youth to revive rural areas

11/06/2025

To identify and discuss obstacles and opportunities of rural youth in Europe and Central Asia, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) convened the second Regional Rural Youth Forum in Budapest, Hungary. Starting today, youth representatives, decision makers, young farmers, civil society, and others) from 22 countries of the region will hear examples of successful support to rural youth, as well as look at the issues they are facing and solutions. In a region, where the trend in rural areas of the countries is to an ageing population, the forum is also an opportunity to raise awareness on the importance of generational sustainability of family farming.

Budapest hosts key strategic platform of FAO Members on food and agriculture

15/05/2025

Starting today, a two-day session of the Informal Consultation, organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) will again be hosted by Hungary in Budapest, with the objective to shape and refine the FAO priorities for the Europe and Central Asia region for 2026–2027 in the context of a rapidly changing world and the countdown to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Over 30 Members from the European and Central Asia region have come to the session, opened by the Minister of Agriculture of Hungary Istvan Nagy and FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative, Viorel Gutu.