IMF appoints new mission leader in Belarus
MINSK. July 6 (Interfax) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has appointed a new Belarusian mission chief - David Hoffman, an economist in the Fund's European Department, the IMF office in Belarus told Interfax.
Hoffman is currently on a visit to Minsk and will meet with government leaders as well as representatives from the National Bank of Belarus and various ministries.
Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich, who met the new mission leader on Friday, confirmed that the government is interested in the drafting of a new program with the IMF.
"We would like to talk about our next steps, about a new program. We need to talk about further steps that will be constructive for Belarusian economic interests and that will take into account global processes in the world economy," the prime minister said.
Hoffman said the purpose of his visit was for handover procedures and to introduce himself to the Belarusian authorities as the new mission chief in Belarus. He said the current mission was limited and there were no plans to draw up a report. The mission will be used to lay groundwork for a future mission on a third post-program monitoring, which will be held in October, he said.
It was reported in March that Chris Jarvis had quit his post as mission leader in Belarus and he was appointed head of the mission in Ukraine. The IMF eliminated the post of permanent representative in Belarus, which had been held since early 2009 by Natalia Kolyadina.
Belarus asked the IMF for a new stabilization loan in May 2011, hoping to refinance previous borrowing of $3.6 billion, which was raised when the stand-by program was in effect from January 2009 to April 2010. The authorities confirmed their request in April-May 2012, but underlined political obstacles in the dialogue with the IMF board, in which the United States and the European Union hold majority representation. The IMF has said Belarus needs to draft a reform program and confirmed that all board members are willing to vote in favor of allocating new resources to Belarus.
