UN and Government shed light on the outcome of the roundtable and on the way ahead

7 Apr 2015

UN and Government shed light on the outcome of the roundtable and on the way ahead

7 April 2015 - Prime Minister Domingos Simões Pereira and UNIOGBIS leadership have been multiplying efforts to clarify the outcome of the Brussels donor roundtable to the Bissau-Guinean people.

Prime Minister Pereira explained that the promises made by partners - amounting to 1.5 billion USD - will not be disbursed directly, but through projects to be implemented together with development partners. The announcements made by donors in Brussels, on 25 March, also include the country's debt relief through the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative.
"There will be no direct transfer of funds to our bank account. Instead, we will negotiate specific projects to which those funds will be allocated, to pay directly to suppliers and others.", stressed the Prime Minister.

In a recent interview to UNIOGBIS/PIU, Domingos Simões Pereira further explained that many of the donations promised at the roundtable are already included in the cooperation framework agreed between Guinea Bissau and the international partners.

"For example, the European Union has announced an important package of 160 million euro, but this amount corresponds to a program of the European Fund for Development, which in itself has a series of requirements that we have to comply with the be able to access those funds.", he added.

The Deputy-Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Maria do Valle Ribeiro, also reminded that the roundtable is only one more step for the development of Guinea-Bissau: "The roundtable was an opportunity to capture some funds but it is not the only one."

Maria do Valle Ribeiro, considered the roundtable a success: "It provided an opportunity for Guinea-Bissau to present its strategic vision for the period 2020-25 and to show its ambitions in terms of security, defense and justice sectors, and modernization of state administration."
In addition to these "fundamental" sectors, the Prime Minister identified his Government priority areas: agriculture, fisheries, tourism, and mining.

Prime-Minister Pereira is very satisfied with the response of the international community at the donor roundtable. "They believe in our capacity to build consensus around our vision for the next 10 years and that we can implement a good part during our mandate. But that means that we will be under scrutiny by the international community", he concluded.

Today, the Prime Minister met with the international partners over the outcomes of the 25 March roundtable. This is the third meeting in a series that began a few days ago with the entire the Council of Ministers and at the Parliament with MPs.