You're reading: Approval of new World Bank strategy for Belarus depends on key shareholders

The outlook for the approval and implementation of a new World Bank country strategy for Belarus that would include loans depends on the bank's main shareholders, World Bank country director for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine, Qimiao Fan said at a meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich on Wednesday.

Fan express a willingness to discuss work on a new strategy, but said that Belarus would have to work with the World Bank’s main shareholders (the United States and the European Union), the government press service said in a press release.

The press release indicates that Belarus is hoping for a new development loan from the World Bank, but the outlook for receiving it depend on whether Minsk agrees on a new program with the International Monetary Fund. “Concerning the topic of a loan for development, the guest said that the government has done a great deal to stabilize the economy, and an IMF decision is important for further work,” the release said.

The release also said that the parties agreed to step up action on the development of a new country strategy taking into account the fact that “Qimiao Fan praised the macroeconomic stability in the country and the fact that the government has begun implementing structural reform.”

“He said that the organization is interested in developing a strategy and continue support for structural reform, including the pension system,” the government said.

Fan, who was recently appointed World Bank country director for Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, is visiting Belarus for the first time from July 9 to 14. During his visit, a Country Economic Memorandum was presented in which the World Bank said that the Belarusian economy had exhausted traditional sources of growth and urged the authorities to implement a radical restructuring of the economy aimed at reducing the predominant role of the state and ensuring sustainable growth.

Myasnikovich initiated the discussion of a new cooperation strategy, as the previous four-year strategy expired in the middle of 2011 and Belarus has not received new World Bank loans since then.

Former country director Martin Raiser said in October 2011 that the World Bank planned to begin developing a new country strategy for Belarus in 2012, but the bank has still not announced the start of effort.

The World Bank earlier linked the possible adoption of a new strategy for Belarus with the start of a new IMF program in the country.

Belarus has received nearly $900 million from the World Bank for 13 projects since joining the bank in 1992. This included a $200 million 16-year loan for development received at the end of 2009.