Thursday, 13 December 2007
RA Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan received World Bank Vice-President for Europe and Central Asia Shigeo Kazu.
Welcoming the guest, Serzh Sargsyan noted that less than two months hade passed since their Washington meeting of which he got very good impressions. Mr. Kazu's sufficiently favorable opinion of Armenia's economy and those reforms underway in our country inspired enthusiasm and strengthened his conviction that Armenia is on the right path of development and has all the possibilities for winding up the pace of development. According to the Prime Minister, this implies a higher standard for future programs to be implemented in Armenia.
The World Bank Vice-President for Europe and Central Asia reaffirmed his opinion of our country and went on to note that Armenia has been among those countries consistently displaying good performance over the recent period. He said that considering the per-capita growth of GDP in our country, there is a possibility of making a shift from the IDA financing towards a joint IDA-IBRD financing scenario, followed by an exclusively IBRD-financed scheme.
Shigeo Kazu advised that the World Bank was launching the preparation of the 2008-2012 strategy of country assistance for Armenia, with the resources to be committed implying that a focus was going to be placed on the implementation of second- and third-generation reforms and institutional transformations:
