IDB Ready to Work with Sandinista Govt
Inter American Development Bank (IDB) president, Luis Alberto Moreno, assured here Tuesday that the entity will give credits to the Sandinist government assuming power next January 10.

The announcement was made by Moreno in Managua, after meeting with the president elect and leader of the Sandinist Front for National Liberation, Daniel Ortega.

"We are to be looking during the first days of the coming year at the credit program for 2007. We cannot say how much at the moment, but I suppose it will be around 100 million dollars," Moreno said to reporters.

The banker of Colombian origin held talks behind closed doors with Ortega, where they would talk about the next government´s projects to fight poverty and the energy problem faced by the country.

Another topic discussed was sanitizing the environment, potable water supply and the creation of a development bank, project intended to become the crown jewel of the next government to extend easy-term credits to small and medium producers.

After confirming its willingness to work with the new authorities, Moreno recalled the IDB has been in Nicaragua for over half a century and only in the last five years, it disembursed 520 million dollars to the Enrique Bolanos administration.

The last of those loans, for 79.5 million dollars, was handed last night to the exiting president, but it is destined to be spent by the Sandinista government.

The resources delivered Monday evening, as it was known, will be destined to road construction and potable water supply systems to benefit the population in Nicaragua´s heartland.

The president-elect has slated a meeting today with a high level delegation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to lay the basis of future economic agreements.

It is expected that after his meeting with the IMF, Ortega will give a press conference to evaluate the results of both meetings.