IMF TO RESUME NEGOTIATIONS WITH MOLDOVAN CABINET NEXT WEEK

Chisinau, Feb 22 /Moldpres/ - A mission of the International
Monetary Fund headed by Regional Director of the Fund Richard
Haas will arrive in Chisinau on a working visit on February 25 in
the afternoon.

Sources in the IMF Representative Office in Moldova said
that the mission will work in Chisinau during February 26 - March
7. The mission will have a string of working meetings on its
agenda.

According to the same sources, the mission led by Richard
Haas will have meetings with Premier Vasile Tarlev, other Cabinet
officials, with the leadership of the ministries of Finance,
Economy, of the National Bank.

IMF Resident Official in Chisinau Hassan Al-Atrash has
previously said that the mission will discuss with the Government
representatives four important issues: the elimination of the
state guarantee that is stipulated in the Moldo-Russian accord on
the gas delivery, the endorsement by the Parliament of a
market-oriented civil code, the progress made in the negotiations
with the World Bank for the disbursement of the loan under the
SAC-III, the observance of the quantitative indexes regarding the
fiscal and monetary policy, that are provided for in the
supplement to the Memorandum with IMF, the Cabinet and the Fund
agreed on in August, 2001.

The IMF official underscored that in case the four main
problems are settled, the session of the IMF Board of Directors
might take place in March-April.

Hassan Al-Atrash also said that according to an optimistic
scenario, during the same period, the Paris Club is to convene at
a meeting on the matter of rescheduling of Moldova's foreign
debts.

The meeting of the IMF Board of Directors on the resumption
of Moldova's foreign financing was to be held in December, last
year. It was postponed, however, for reasons that the Government
disregarded the Fund's condition on the non-assuming by the state
of new debts, and accepted the guarantee of such debts through
the signing of the Moldo-Russian accord on the gas delivery.