The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has opened its regional office in Beirut tasked with helping Middle East countries, including Afghanistan, upgrade their economic, monetary and fiscal policies. The Middle East Technical Assistance Centre (METAC) will initially provide Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, the Palestinian territories, Sudan, Syria and Yemen with technical assistance in the domains of central banking (banking supervision, structuring, payment systems, resources management and monetary operations) as well as public expenditure, revenue and tax management.
METAC, which will employ between 10 and 12 staff, is the fifth regional IMF office of its kind. Others already exist for East and West Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. Initially, the emphasis of this office was to be focused on post-conflict countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories, and Sudan. But its scope has since been broadened.
Significantly, the inauguration coincided with a warning in Beirut by visiting IMF managing director Rodrigo de Rato that Lebanon is still economically vulnerable (primarily because of its massive public debt) and he urged the government to enact long overdue reforms. METAC will be offering assistance. But observers caution that in the absence of political will on the part of the Government this assistance will be worthless.
“We can design a program,” said METAC Coordinator Sami Geadah, “but if there’s no political will it will lead to nothing. Why establish the office?”
“I am afraid that in the absence of a local Government policy, this office will play a substitute role,” said economist Kamal Hamdan. “The pre-requisite for its success is a Government predisposition to the implementation of big reforms.”
Asked if that predisposition existed in Lebanon, he responded: “I don’t think so.”
The choice, he added, is stark: “Either they go for reform, or we will continue approaching a catastrophe.”
