A delegation of Somaliland Government ministers, heads of departments and agencies completed a three day seminar and workshop organized by the World Bank on Wednesday (06/12/06) in Sheraton Hotel Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The Somaliland delegation was led by the Minister of National Planning of Somaliland Mr Ali Ibrahim Mohamed.

The Somaliland Times correspondent in Addis Ababa, Barre Addunyo met the Minister in his hotel and asked the purpose of the Somaliland delegation trip to Addis Ababa. The minister said, the purpose of our trip to Addis Ababa is for two reasons, one was for application of technical and managerial skills and the other was for direct consultations with the World Bank. The minister said ‘we have been learning the efficient methods in use in the world today for good management of our economies’.

The minister told our correspondent that ‘among other things discussed at this seminar was Somaliland’s current needs and state of its economy and at same time we were in negotiations with the World Bank and have entered or made an agreement with the World Bank to assist Somaliland civil servant workforce in developing their skills, this is the first time in Somaliland’s history that a formal agreement has been signed with the world Bank’. He said ‘also as partners to this agreement we and the World Bank have made joint planning action which we have given a time frame for it to be put into implementation.

Also, at the meeting donor countries from Demark, Norway, Italy and USA and UNDP were in the three-day discussions.

The minister also said, ‘a World Bank delegation will be coming for formal visit to Somaliland on 13 December 2006’.