The World Bank views favorably the actions taken by official Belarusian authorities to address social consequences of the crisis and deepen the structural reforms that provide the foundation for recovering the sustainable economic growth. The World Bank experts expressed an intention to continue cooperation with Belarus in various areas of mutual interest.
These matters were discussed at a meeting of Deputy Head of the Belarus President Administration Leonid Anfimov, Director of the Sustainable Development Sector Unit in Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank Peter Thomson, World Bank Country Director for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova Martin Raiser, other World Bank representatives on 14 May, BelTA learned from the Belarus President Administration.
During the meeting a large number of things relating to Belarus’ social and economic development, the measures the government and the National Bank are taking to counteract global crisis processes and to resume the country’s dynamic development were discussed. Representatives of the Belarus President Administration told BelTA, in 2010 and in the medium term future the development of Belarus’ relations with the World Bank will be focused on implementing the cooperation strategy, including reformation of the management of state finance.
At present Belarus’ cooperation with the World Bank follows the strategy of cooperation in the fiscal years of 2008-2011. The adoption and fulfillment of the strategy allowed stepping up cooperation between Belarus and the World Bank and substantially increasing the funding available for Belarus projects. In line with the strategy existing credit projects are being implemented while new ones are being prepared in accordance with the guidelines the sides agreed on earlier.
Belarus became a member of the World Bank in 1992. Since then Belarus has been given $643 million for nine projects and granted $18 million for around 30 national programs. At present Belarus uses World Bank money to finance four infrastructure development projects. In late 2009 the World Bank adopted a corrected strategy for cooperation with Belarus in 2008-2011. The document provides for raising the annual amount of financial aid available to Belarus from $100 million to $250 million. It will allow stepping up joint work on mutually beneficial projects. In December 2009 Belarus received a World Bank loan of $200 million for development purposes. The loan was provided to support the government’s economic program, which is aimed at removing social consequences of the crisis and deepening the structural reforms that provide the foundation for recovering the sustainable economic growth.
