WORLD Bank representatives are due to meet with Mozambican government officials for two-day consultative talks starting on Thursday, the bank said. The talks in Mozambique’s capital Maputo are to assess progress in the government’s poverty reduction and development programmes. The Bank said in a statement that the meeting would also examine Mozambique’s future financial requirements. Planning and Finance minister Luisa Diogo said Wednesday that the government needs at least $600-million a year for the next few years for its programmes to succeed. Diogo told the Noticias newspaper that Mozambique’s dependency on foreign aid, previously at 60% of the state budget, had dropped to around 45% by the late 1990s. Mozambique has been implementing a structural adjustment programme backed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since 1987. – Sapa-AFP
Tuesday October 23, 2001