Addis Ababa: The financial packages from the World Bank and the IMF will bolster the government's reform aimed at ensuring macroeconomic stability and maintain strong growth, Finance Minister Ahmed Shide said today. Speaking about the draft proclamation for the International Development Association (IDA) 500-million USD concessional loan tabled to the House of People's Representatives, he noted that the financial packages from the World Bank and the IMF will bolster the government's reform efforts. 'We have entered into a comprehensive macroeconomic reform as a country this week. This reform is not new, it has been under implementation since the Homegrown Economic Reform was crafted five years ago.' According to him, the reform aims to mainly increase the role of the private sector. To correct the macroeconomic imbalance, the government introduced the Homegrown Economic Reform and the 10-year development plan, he added. Since then various activities have been carried out to sustain development, bring pri ce stability, maintain sustainable payment balance, reduce debt burden and solve economic challenges. The minister said that the nation has gained many positive results by implementing the first Home Grown Economic Reform, despite internal and external challenges. While progress was made under the first phase of the reform, challenges such as conflict, climate change, and the global impact of the Russia-Ukraine war hindered further advancements. The Second Homegrown Economic Reform is designed to strengthen that previous plan and extensive discussions and training were held to make this phase effective, Ahmed said. The recent measures taken by the government are aimed to deepen the ongoing economic reform activities and fully implement remaining reform activities, he noted. The minister underscored that the new measure to embrace a market-led economy is timely. "We have not borrowed any external loan in the past six years," he said, pointing out that the debt burden is high due to loans in the past 15 y ears. The comprehensive macroeconomic reform is aimed to reduce this debt burden, he revealed. The minister stated that "we will reduce debt burden and get huge foreign currency to support our reform and budget." Source: Ethiopian News Agency