ROA PRIME MINISTER MEETS WITH WORLD BANK MISSION

hetq.am/en/economy/jgnajam-5/
2009/04/07 | 19:27

Economy

RoA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan hosted a mission from the World
Bank’s Development Policy Lending Program Design division, headed by
Senior Economist for Armenia Robert Talierzo.

Robert Talierzo thanked the Armenian prime minister for facilitating
fruitful discussions with the local ministries and agencies concerned.

Mr. Talierzo informed PM Sargsyan on the status of the 3-year country
support lending program development activities currently underway
at the World Bank. He noted that the mission has already discussed
this year’s lending program with corresponding Armenian agencies. The
2010-2011 programs were said to have been left for discussion at a
session scheduled for the last decade of this month.

The Prime Minister was further briefed on the mission’s recommendations
regarding actions in anticipation of the first lending program which
was said to have an anti-crisis bias. Mr. Talierzo stressed the need
for earmarking additional funds to the social sector. The mission
head appreciated the steps taken so far by the Government, including
the set of legislative initiatives providing for increased small
and medium-size enterprise support, improved business environment
etc. Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan concurred with Mr. Talierzo.

The parties have stated that the package of proposed action will
be finalized once the Government of Armenia, the World Bank and the
IMF come to an agreement on Armenia’s macroeconomic forecasts. Prime
Minister Sargsyan accepted the proposal on establishing a task force
to formulate more accurate macroeconomic forecasts and develop a
number of scenarios.

Robert Talierzo said the Bank is prepared to support Armenia and
as soon as the preliminaries for this year’s program are finalized,
the mutually agreed document will be submitted to the World Bank’s
Board of Directors for consideration