Announcement of Meeting of the Consultative Group for Mauritania on November 27, 1985

FOR IMMEDIATE ,RELEASE World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington , D.C. 20433 , U.S.A.• Telephone: (202 ) 477-1234 DEc 19 Joas 1 .. BANK PRESS RELEASE November 27, 1985 MEETING OF THE CONSULTATIVE GROUP FOR MAURITANIA The Consultative Group for Mauritania met for the first time in Paris on November 26 and 27, 1985 to consider Mauritania's economic and financial Recovery Program over the 1985-88 period, the action measures for implementing the program, and the required external assistance to support it. The Group, comprising 12 bilateral donors and 10 multilateral institutions, met under the Chairmanship of Mr. Ismail Serageldin, Director, Programs Department, Western Africa Region, The World Bank. The Mauritania Delegation was led by His Excellency Mr. Mohammed Salem Ould Lekdhal, Minister of Economy and Finance, and included the Governor of the Central Bank and the Secretary General of the Government, as well as several senior officials of the Mauritanian Government. After a careful review of the Economic and Financial Recovery Program for 1985-88 presented by the Mauritanian Government, the Group found the Program to be a sound basis for restoring Mauritania's financial stability and economic growth, and lent its strong support to its implementation. The members of the Consultative Group welcomed the measures already taken by the Government including a 20% devaluation in real terms, price and interest rates adjustments and the revision of the public investment program. They gave their support to the action program to implement the 1985-88 Recovery Program that its representatives presented to the meeting. Members of the Group also emphasized the need for specific, monitorable actions to implement the Program. Measures to strengthen the performance of the public sector, to facilitate financial restructuring, and to support the productive sectors were also commended. Members of the Consultative Group agreed that the successful implementation of the Recovery Program will depend critically on the Government's capacity to make a careful selection of investment projects. In that respect, the meeting welcomed the Mauritanian Government's decision to establish an Inter-Ministerial Coordinating Committee to screen the economic merits of investment proposals and to monitor the implementation of the Recovery Program. The meeting also stressed the need for closer and more structured aid coordination as a means to foster an efficient implementation of the Program; in that connection, a proposal for sector donor meetings as a follow-up to the Consultative Group was also endorsed.  - 2 - The Group reviewed financial requirements for the three years 1986, 1987 and 1988 estimated at about US$700 million consisting of: (i) US$170 million in the form of food aid and technical assistance; (ii) US$470 million for new projects to be initiated during the Recovery Program; (iii) US$60 million for balance of payments support. In addition, there will be a need to reschedule Mauritanian's debt service payments which would amount to US$570 million before debt relief. On the basis of statements made by members of the Group, the Chairman's preliminary estimate was that these needs would be substantially met. The Representatives of the governments of France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Kuwait, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Spain, the United States, and of the African Development Bank, the Arab Monetary Fund, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the Commission of the European Communities, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the International Monetary Fund, the Islamic Development Bank, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, the United Nations Development Programme, the Opec Fund for International Development, the World Food Programme, and the World Bank attended the meeting. Representatives of the OECD, Algeria and Brazil also attended as observers. The meeting agreed that the Consultative Group for Mauritania should reconvene in about two years to review progress and to consider further steps.