Prime Minister heads to Dominican Republic

Prime Minister Said Musa today flew to Santo Domingo where he began the final leg of an extended trip, which has already taken him to London and Washington, D.C. Over the next several days in the Dominican Republic Musa will open a cultural exhibition and meet with President Hipolito Mejia and other government officials. According to a press office release, the London gathering of Commonwealth finance ministers allowed leaders to prepare for the I.M.F./World Bank meeting in Washington and coordinate lobbying strategies on behalf of small nations. Once in Washington, the U.K. International Development Minister, Claire Short, confirmed that Belize had finally qualified under the terms of the Commonwealth Debt Initiative for 2002. This means that six million dollars owed to Great Britain, which currently sits in an escrow account at the Belize Central Bank, will now be released for projects designed to alleviate poverty. As for the I.M.F./World Bank discussions, where Musa was joined by Budget Minister Ralph Fonseca, the release spoke of “straight talk” by the lending agencies, recognizing the need for flexibility and broad based consultations in formulating solutions for debt ridden economies. In what appeared to be the high point of the trip, the Belize delegation, including those who attended Monday’s O.A.S. ceremony, were hosted by Enrique Iglesias, President of the Interamerican Development Bank. The occasion was the opening of an exhibition of Belizean art at I.D.B. headquarters. It may be recalled that under the Ramphal/Reichler proposals, Iglesias’s bank would manage the two hundred million U.S. dollar development fund.