Babacan: We Have Not Made Any Agreement For 4 Billion Usd Loan To Be Released By I.M.F.

ANKARA - State Minister Ali Babacan said on Friday that they had not made any agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for 4 billion U.S. dollars of loan to be released by the fund.
Rifat Hisarciklioglu, the Chairman of the Union of Turkish Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB), hosted a reception before the 58th General Assembly of TOBB to take place on Saturday.
Replying questions of reporters in the reception, Babacan said that what was important was to continue the economic reform program.
Babacan noted that they expected IMF Executive Board to have a meeting till the end of June and 500 million U.S. dollars of loan to be released after that meeting.
Asked if they reached a compromise with the IMF on the changes in the Public Procurement Law, Babacan said, ''work on amendment to the Public Procurement Law has reached the final stage. IMF don't deal with the technical details. It is the business of the World Bank. We continue our contacts with the World Bank and the European Union (EU) regarding this law.''
Replying a question on delay in structural reforms, Babacan said, ''we favor passing laws after a detailed examination. The Labor Law was passed in a hurry. We are trying to correct it. The Public Procurement Law was also passed in a hurry. We are also trying to correct it. We want to pass strong laws. There can be a delay of a few weeks. These are problems coming from the last 30-40 years. Nothing will happen with a few weeks of delay.''
Answering a question on demand of the IMF regarding the energy tenders, Babacan said, ''this issue did not come onto the agenda during my contacts.''
Asked about the World Bank loans, Babacan said that the amount of loan to be released by the World Bank was around 1.2 billion U.S. dollars.
Babacan noted that there were reforms to be made regarding that loan and that those reforms continued.
Loans could be released in case reforms were completed, Babacan stated.
Asked if the loans to be released by the World Bank would be restructured, Babacan said, ''these loans are not operating for a few years, we are trying to revive them. There is nothing like restructuring. Only structural reforms should be made to get these loans. We said that the interest of the public financial sector loan FSAL-2 was high. There is a possibility that this will come onto the agenda under a new structure FSAL-3 with a low interest rate.''
(BRC) 30.05.2003