Liberia’s Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Amara Konneh departs Liberia for Washington DC

Monrovia, Liberia - Liberia’s Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Amara Konneh departs Liberia for Washington DC on Monday, 5th October, as part of a government delegation at the upcoming annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF.

The high powered delegation which includes the Governor of the Central Bank of Liberia, Dr. Mills Jones,is expected to hold series of multilateral and bilateral discussions aimed at rallying support for the government’s“National Ebola Response Strategy” and the overall efforts to contain and defeat the disease.

The Liberian delegation is also expected to hold a special “Ebola Roundtable” involving the UN, the World Bank and host of development partners.

The delegation will hold separate meetings with key partners financing existing infrastructure projects in a bid to ensure funding and implementation of these activities are not adversely affected by the crisis.

The meeting comes at a time when Liberia is experiencing the worst ever outbreak of the “Ebola Virus Disease” (EVD), which has claimed many lives, posing  further risk of expose to the larger population.

Since the advent of the Ebola outbreak in March 2014, economic activities throughout the country have been seriously affected, with concession companies scaling down their operations, as expatriates depart the country for fear of contracting the deadly EVD.

An MFDP press release quotes Minister Konneh as saying, “economic growth is projected to slow by more than 95%, from 5.9% to 1%, further exacerbating the already volatile youth unemployment outlook.

“Our immediate priority is to mitigate the immediate impact of the outbreak by financing the budget, but in the medium to long-term we will also aim to secure financing for a comprehensive post-Ebola economic recovery plan.”

Recently the Liberian government announced it would require roughly US $ 375 million to effectively fund its National Ebola Response and Restoration of Basic Health Services strategy, in addition to support already provided by different international organizations on the ground.