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afrol News, 1 April - The Mauritanian Minister of Development and Economic Affairs, Mohamed Ould Nany, has held an information meeting with World Bank officials in Nouakchott, according to local press reports. The further cooperation and the country's poverty reduction programme for the period 2003-05 were discussed. According to the Mauritanian news agency AMI, Minister Ould Nany and several of his colleagues yesterday met with a World Bank delegation led by the Bank's Resident in Mauritania, Yves Duvivier. The two exchanged information and discussed the strategy for cooperation in the upcoming 2003-2005 period. Mauritania was also preparing an updated poverty reduction strategy for this new period. This regular dialogue is to overlook the results of the cooperation over the period 1997-2001. In these years, Ould Nany and Duvivier agreed, Mauritania had encouraging results in the economic and social plan. Poverty reduction had been given great importance and was beginning to note successes. According to AMI, Duvivier congratulated Mauritania for the efforts in its strategy to eliminate poverty. The aims of the consultations had been to identify the top priorities in future interventions by the World Bank Group and other Mauritanian development partners. Minister Ould Nany was accompanied by three other Ministers, the head of the Central Bank and several other high officials. Mauritania is heavily engaged with World Bank and the IMF. The country receives debt relief services amounting to US$ 1.1 billion, starting in year 2000. According to the World Bank, "Mauritania has established a good track record of adjustment and reform on the macroeconomic, social and political fronts," a condition for receiving assistance from the Bank. Although Mauritania's economy has become substantially liberalised since the early 1980s, "the economic structure still presents a sharp contrast between a relatively small modern sector and traditional subsistence sectors," the World Bank assesses. Mauritania has a very narrow economic base, with an industrial sector dominated by mining and fisheries activities, which together provide all export earnings, and a rural sector which employs an estimated 64 percent of the labour force. The fight against poverty has been a corner-stone in the IMF's engagement in Mauritania. "The 2002 budget orientation is aimed at increasing social spending and some other current outlays," the IMF observes, welcoming this move. Mauritania is receiving technical assistance from the IMF and the World Bank in the implementation of its poverty reduction strategy.
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