Alexander Voitovich Meets with IMF Mission

On April 22 in Minsk the mission on technical assistance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) met with speaker of the Upper House of the Belarusian Parliament Alexander Voitovich. The joint mission of the Fiscal Affairs Department and IMF’s European II Department is headed by Eivind Tandberg. The mission is working in Belarus on April 21-May 1.

While opening the meeting Mr. Voitovich noted that “a transition country should consider not only its own experience, but that of other countries as well”. According to him, Belarus is following the way of market reforms.

In his opening address Mr. Tandberg stated that the basic goal of the mission is to provide assessment of transparency of budget sphere to check its compliance with international standards. “60 countries have undergone the procedure, some neighbors of Belarus including”, he noted.

Besides, Mr. Tandberg pointed to the fact that the transparency of budget sphere is an important aspect for determining the quality of budget preparation and attraction of resources from international financial markets.

The IMF mission is working in Belarus upon request of the Belarusian Finance Ministry. The results of its work will be used by the IMF experts to prepare a report on Belarus’ observance of the IMF standards in the sphere of transparency of budget and tax policy.

Since Belarus entered into co-operation with the IMF, it has received two tranches under the systemic transformation programme - $98 million in August 1993 and $101.7 million in February 1995, and a $70 million tranche of the stand-by loan in September 1995. Subsequently, the IMF halted the extension of loans to Belarus because of the discrepancy between the government’s economic policy and the fund’s recommendations.

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