IMF official says no funds for East Timor during transition
IMF official says no funds for East Timor during transition
DARWIN, Australia (Reuters): The International Monetary Fund
will not give money to East Timor during the United Nations
transitional administration of the battered territory, a regional
IMF official said on Sunday.
"In the transitional stage, since East Timor is not a member,
the assistance of the fund will be limited to policy advice and
technical assistance," IMF Asia and Pacific representative Luis
Valdivieso said.
"No financial assistance will be involved...we expect that
once the East Timorese government is constituted the procedures
for membership could be initiated and at that point East Timor
could have access to funds," he said.
Valdivieso told reporters the Fund was working with other
agencies, such as the World Bank, to assess how much was needed
for immediate humanitarian relief and economic reconstruction.
The World Bank is conducting a multi-agency assessment mission
and will set up a trust fund for East Timor ahead of a donors'
meeting next month.
The IMF is examining how to set up a macroeconomic framework
and will soon report to the UN Transitional Administration in
East Timor, which is yet to take up its full role of civil
administration and peacekeeping.
"This macroeconomic framework should incorporate both the cost
of reconstruction and the restoration of normal economic activity
and make it consistent with the resources available to be
provided by donors," Valdivieso said.
Pro-Indonesia militias went on destructive rampages after East
Timorese voted in August for independence from Indonesia, which
invaded the territory in 1975.
Indonesia ratified the ballot and set East Timor on the path
to independence last month. The last of its troops left the
territory a week ago.
Hundreds of thousands of East Timorese refugees fled their
homes in fear of the militias in September, most to refugee camps
in Indonesian West Timor.
Jakarta reluctantly allowed an Australian-led multinational
intervention force into East Timor to restore order and security.
That force will soon be replaced by UNTAET, which UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said is likely to be in place
for between two and three years.
The United Nations has said $199 million was needed to cover
emergency needs, the reconstruction phase and to reinvigorate an
economy that was propped up for over 20 years by Indonesia.
East Timorese economists have put the cost of rebuilding basic
infrastructure and services at $170 million a year for the next
10 years.