Paulo Neuhaus is Satisfied
Article in the MSN newpaper of March 1, 2006.

 

Yesterday the IMF mission to Kyrgyzstan , which is now headed by Paulo Neuhaus, held final negotiations with the government and reached an agreement on implementation of an economic program for a period till the end of 2006.

For two weeks, according to the mission chief, the continuous negotiations and meetings were held - with President Bakiev, Prime Minister Kulov, NBKR Chairman Sarbanov, Economy and Finance Minister Japarov, heads of other agencies, and deputies of Parliament.

- A task that faced us was to discuss with the authorities of the country economic development plans for the current year, consider the budget and measures that would facilitate growth of the people’s welfare, - said Paulo Neuhaus.

- Economic performance of Kyrgyzstan is good, regardless of a decline in gold production. On the whole, the government managed to maintain macroeconomic discipline, and low inflation is noted in your country. And, all these factors effecting poverty reduction, should be maintained.

What recommendations did the mission chief give to the Cabinet of Felix Kulov? In principle, all advices were not new, they were pronounced quite frequently by Tapio Saavalainen, predecessor of Paulo Neuhaus. These are both to create acceptable conditions for development of a private sector, which should become a “locomotive” for the economy, and to wish to handle assistance of international donors to maximal advantage when solving global economic problems, and to realize a need for development of the mid-term program for economic development of Kyrgyzstan , in which a special emphasis would be placed on the energy sector and a social sphere.

The IMF mission chief believes that difficulties the Republic is going through are due to the unsolved problems, which go back to disintegration of the Soviet Union , - these are: an undeveloped infrastructure and service sphere with low investment and the need for budget resources. These are the energy sector, whose condition was discussed a lot of time during the negotiations. Neither the IMF, nor the government is satisfied with the current situation in the energy sector, with a chaos in money flows, offsets and high rates of technical and commercial losses.

- You have to solve the following problems - to improve the situation in the energy sector and to make shadow economy open, - said Paulo Neuhaus.

His answer to a question of what he thought of the issue of reducing a retirement age, the mission chief answered the following way: “The government believes that it is not the right time today for such a step – there are no sufficient funds in the budget.

In conclusion, a few words about Paulo Neuhaus, who will now regularly visit us, several times a year to track a progress in implementing the PRGF–2. According to Michael Mered, IMF Resident Representative in Kyrgyzstan , he belongs to the highest level of the Fund management, and he works in the Middle East and Central Asia Department as Assistant Director. Georgia was his previous assignment. Mr. Neuhaus graduated from a prestige university in Chicago , he is a citizen of Brazil .

Larisa Lee
March 1, 2006
MSN newspaper

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