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.