The World Bank and its financial partner, the International Monetary Fund, will on Thursday begin talks here with Ivory Coast officials which could result in the end of a 1998 aid freeze.
The April 5 to 14 talks are exploratory in nature, according to both institutions and crucial for Ivory Coast, whose economy has been ailing for some time.
World Bank spokesman here, Bakary Sanogo, said the talks were aimed at "resuming dialogue with a partner that is the Ivory Coast.
"Ivory Coast has been in a difficult economic situation for the past few years," he said.
Sanogo said the Bank was looking for signs that Abidjan would create conditions that would "ensure durable growth due to stability and security."
Ivorian Prime Minister Pascal Affi N'Guessan told AFP the "backing of the World Bank and IMF is essential" for Abidjan.
"We can forge an agreement on a programme, it will allow us access to budgetary resources and obtain funds" for politico-social programmes, he said.
Pierre Ewenczyk, the IMF representative in Abidjan, underlined that the talks were preliminary in nature.
"This evaluation mission is a follow up of technical discussions begun in Washington but it is not a mission of negotiation," he said.
The IMF and the World Bank suspended aid to Abidjan in 1998, a year before a military coup staged by ex-junta leader Robert Guei. The financial institutions had accused the then government of former president Henri Konan Bedie of "bad governance".
Abidjan suffered through controversial presidential and legislative elections last year which were boycotted by the main opposition party and marred by violence. Guei lost power and was replaced by President Laurent Gbagbo.
Ivory Coast staged peaceful municipal elections last month, marking the first poll in 15 months in which all major political parties took part – ABIDJAN (AFP)
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