Government to Discuss Debt with IMF in Late May

The Kyrgyz government will present the International Monetary Fund, IMF with a new strategy for paying off its two billion US dollar foreign debt when Bishkek hosts an international donor meeting on May 31. After rejecting the IMF/World Bank Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative, HIPC, last February, Kyrgyzstan is now seeking alternative ways of servicing its debt. Paulo Neuhaus, who heads the IMF mission in Bishkek, has said Kyrgyzstan has also lost its chance to join the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative, and the IMF can only offer it advisory services.