BANGKOK: World Bank president Lewis Preston indicated possible imposition of conditional ties on military spending for concessional loans from next year, but IMF Chief Michel Camdessus Catatonically said the fund would not impose any conditionality.
At the conclusion of the three day annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the two chiefs, however, stressed the need for drastic cuts in defense expenditure for releasing more funds for development purposes.
Both Preston and Camdessus emphasized the need for adopting persuasive methods to reduce military spending to 4.5% of the gross domestic product so as to release additional 140 billion dollars for development purposes.
Manmohan Singh Thursday met with his Pakistan counterpart Sartaj Aziz in Bangkok.
The two leaders are understood to have discussed international and bilateral issues.
At the annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF, Aziz emphasized the need for resolving the debt problem.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 25, 1991
