unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (09/24/89)
Angola Is Admitted to the World Bank and I.M.F.
Posting Date: 09/24/89 Source: UNITEX Network, Hoboken, NJ, USA
Host: (201) 795-0733 ISSN: 1043-7932
(New York Times, 20 September, 411 words, DATELINE: Washington)
Angola joined the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
today, despite objections by the United States, which earlier
this summer cast the only vote against its membership.
Angola said that it would not only seek aid from the two global
finance organizations but that it was also reaching out for
American investment.
Membership in the two organizations could open the door to
hundreds of millions of dollars in loans as well as technical
assistance for the African nation, which is ruled by the Marxist
People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or M.P.L.A.
''Angola is a country that will necessarily need assistance,''
Finance Minister Augusto Teixeira de Matos said at a news
conference at the World Bank today shortly after signing
membership documents. ''To leave Angola alone and weakened now
would be a disaster for the West.''
Reform Program
He said Angola had embarked on significant market-oriented
economic reforms, including freeing prices and revamping the
banking system. He indentified oil, fishing, agriculture and
transportation as promising areas for investment.
Angola's membership could also strengthen the M.P.L.A.'s hand in
the 14-year-old civil war with the forces of Jonas Savimbi's
National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or Unita.
Treasury and State Department officials declined to comment, but
a Republican staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee observed that until national reconciliation had been
achieved ''it would be crazy for Americans to invest'' in
Angola. The United States refuses to recognize the M.P.L.A.
Government.
A cease-fire in the civil war, which was negotiated in December,
recently broke down. Monday, Mr. Savimbi failed to show up at an
eight-nation African peace meeting in Zaire because of what were
reported to be wide differences between him and President Jose
Eduardo dos Santos of Angola.
At today's news conference Mr. Matos said the first loans his
Government would seek would be for rebuilding the county's
war-shattered infrastructure.
He also said that Angola, which has a total debt of $6.3 billion,
had had trouble meeting debt service payments and had recently
entered into rescheduling agreements with both the Soviet Union
and Western Governments.
He said the entire $2.5 billion that Angola owes to Moscow has
been rescheduled over 15 years and that $400 million of debt to
Western Governments was recently rescheduled over 10 years.
* Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501)
---
Patt Haring | United Nations | FAX: 212-787-1726
patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information | BBS: 201-795-0733
patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange | (3/12/24/9600 Baud)
-=- Every child smiles in the same language. -=-