"The World Bank wants to bring support to Government's efforts for inclusive growth, economic diversification," Abdoulaye Seck says.
03 Dec, 2020
The Minister of Finance and Budget, Calixte Nganongo, and his colleague in charge of the Budget, Ludovic Ngatsé, on Thursday, December 3, 2020 in Brazzaville, met with a delegation of the World Bank led by Abdoulaye Seck, Director of Operations of this financial institution in Congo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
At the end of this working session, Abdoulaye Seck was available for questions from journalists on the motives of this interview, the expectations of Congo from this institution and the recurrent issue of the Congolese debt.
On the reasons for this meeting, the World Bank Executive Director said that "We had a frank discussion with the ministers on cooperation between the Republic of Congo and the World Bank. We commended the Ministers for the encouraging efforts undertaken by the Government to address the Covid-19 pandemic, with much action to protect lives, on the health side, to protect the most vulnerable households, to protect jobs. We are very pleased to join these efforts. Of course, we also talked about the future, including how the World Bank could continue to support the Government's efforts to achieve inclusive growth and economic diversification. We confirmed that the World Bank's commitment must remain constant and must certainly be consolidated ».
With regard to the World Band assistance expected by Congo, the Director of Operations said that "there are several modalities. There are modalities that have never been boosted. However, this year, we have been quicker to support all programmes, such as Health. We have made an additional commitment to the Lisungui programme and we have explained how we can continue to support other programmes such as Education. The good news is that this commitment needs to remain stronger".
As for Congo's debt, he first "welcomed the efforts that the Ministers are making with their teams to mobilise resources. This is a very good thing. There are many initiatives. There are also efforts made in terms of the quality of public spending, because these two elements are the most important for the future". Secondly, Abdoulaye Seck pointed out that "debt is not necessarily a bad thing, because a debt increases human capital: a debt for education, for health, for spending has an impact on development. This is what we need to focus on. We have been reassured to see that the emphasis is on the quality of public spending. This is an effort that we will continue to support.
