"If the president and the cabinet make courageous and resolute steps," he told a news conference, "then aid from the IMF will be quick to come. After meeting the president and prime minister we are convinced that they understand this well."
Camdessus was the first top-level foreign visitor to Belarus since youthful corruption-buster Alexander Lukashenko became the first president of the former Soviet republic in a landslide vote earlier this month. Lukashenko, who advocated closer ties with Russia and maintained a rather conservative economic stance during his campaign, has emerged as a proponent of slow but steady market reforms.
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