World Bank, Russia talk about talking
World Bank, Russia talk about talking
Health minister writes hopeful note
The World Bank and Russia appear to be back on track and are corresponding once again on the subject of a $100 million loan to fight rising HIV and TB rates in Russia. Reports of the loan’s demise notwithstanding, the situation is far from hopeless, says Jean Jacques de St. Antoine, the bank’s program team leader for Russia.
"It’s not a dead issue at all," he says. Negotiations should restart sometime within the next two to six months, he adds.
In June, the Russian minister of health went on the record as being opposed to the loan. That led many observers to conclude that the Russian government had pulled out of loan talks altogether. In truth, the minister’s public bout of griping led only to a temporary impasse in which "the [Russian] government did not answer our requests to negotiate. It didn’t look good at the time," concedes de St. Antoine, "but [even then] there was a chance for restarting talks." As evidence, last month an apparently chastened health ministry sent a letter to the bank announcing its willingness to revisit the subject of the loan.
Some sticks, some carrots
Throughout the spring, opposition to the loan grew among Russian drug manufacturers, who succeeded in winning the health ministry to their point of view. At the same time, though, de St. Antoine says the bank has applied a mix of sticks and carrots to continue to woo the Russians.
For example, bank officials have warned the country’s finance ministry — which de St. Antoine says is the real negotiating party in the loan talks — that unless the country gets a handle on TB and HIV, Russia’s gross national product could plummet by an entire percentage point over the next five years.
The health ministry, meanwhile, has received a steady stream of assurances from the bank that Russian drug manufacturers won’t be locked out of the bidding wars once money for TB drug purchases becomes available.
"I know of three or four Russian companies that are candidates for WHO inspection," says de St. Antoine, referring to the World Health Organization’s stiff standards for drug manufacturing practices. Companies must comply with these standards before their products can be purchased with World Bank loan funds. "Two of them would probably pass easily, either outright or with just some simple adjustments."
Plus, the bank gives an advantage to home-country manufacturers by allowing them to bid up to 15% higher than outsiders.
The issue of getting money to Russia to fight its multidrug-resistant TB epidemic remains very important to the bank, adds de St. Antoine. "I wouldn’t call the TB situation in Russia a crisis, but it is certainly a serious situation," he says. "It’s very important for us to maintain a dialogue with the Russian government."
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