News Brief: Switzerland Increases Support for IMF Technical Assistance in Five Central Asian Countries

July 19, 2001


Switzerland has increased by US$5 million its financial contribution to IMF technical assistance in Azerbaijan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

The grant will allow the Fund to expand its technical assistance in support of economic reforms in the five countries, which are part of the group, or constituency, of members represented by Switzerland at the IMF.

Switzerland supports technical assistance through the "Switzerland Technical Assistance Subaccount", set up in 1998. Its initial contribution of US$2.5 million has been used to finance four technical assistance projects to strengthen budget, fiscal and debt management. The new resources provided by Switzerland will build on these efforts.

An agreement between Switzerland and IMF on Technical Assistance was signed in Washington, D.C. today by IMF Deputy Managing Director Eduardo Aninat.

Commenting on Switzerland's increased support for IMF Technical Assistance, Mr. Aninat said, "On behalf of the IMF and the authorities in these five countries, I applaud Switzerland's generous support of IMF technical assistance. This action is both a recognition of the importance of technical assistance in strengthening economic management, and a direct contribution to economic reform efforts of Azerbaijan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan."

The IMF provides technical assistance to help member countries strengthen their human resource and institutional capacities for effective economic management. Fund technical assistance focuses on its core areas of competency, namely macroeconomic policy; monetary and foreign exchange policy; fiscal policy and management; and macroeconomic statistics.



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