The NEWS (Monrovia)
28 May 2008
Monrovia — President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Tuesday announced that Finance Minister Antoinette Monsio Sayeh would be assuming the position of Director of the African Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in early July this year.
According to a release, the President believes that the honor extended Liberia in asking Minister Sayeh to join Managing Director Strauss-Kahn's new senior management team at the IMF is an unprecedented opportunity to contribute to reforming the IMF, and to better serving its African clients, including Liberia.
President Johnson-Sirleaf is quoted as saying that the appointment of Dr. Sayeh is also a recognition of the excellent progress her government has made in restoring Liberia's international credibility over the past two and a half years.
President Johnson-Sirleaf observed that while the government would have preferred to have continued Minister Sayeh's leadership of its economic reform program and of the Ministry of Finance, heading the IMF's African Department would allow her to continue strongly supporting Liberia's macro-economic reform program.
The Ministry of Information release said the timing of Minister Sayeh's departure reflects the completion of a number of major deliverables that President Sirleaf had assigned to her including the restoration of stability to Liberia's public finances, a significant expansion of its revenue base; the clearance of Liberia's protracted arrears to IMF, World Bank, and the African Development Bank; its bilateral debt restructuring through the Paris Club, among others.
The release added that in light of these accomplishments, President Johnson-Sirleaf has agreed for Minister Sayeh's departure, and reassured that she would be leaving a Liberia better-positioned to tackle its formidable reconstruction and development challenges.
According to the statement, Minister Sayeh would continue to lead the Ministry of Finance over the next month as it works towards the close of the current fiscal year, the approval of the 2008/09 budget and the Berlin meeting.
The statement said successor arrangements would be announced in due course.
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