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GV & SV EXT of Finance Ministry Abidjan
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SV INT Mr Auger and Mr Aurdan enter and are greeted by Minister Konan Bedie and others
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CU Presidential portrait
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SCU Auger and Bedie sign agreements (2 shots)
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CU Auger signing
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LV Group seated at table
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SCU Auger and Konan Bedie shake hands
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Initials ET/1611 ET/1639



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The First National Bank of Chicago on Wednesday (20 August) signed at agreement to lend 3.5 million dollars (1.4 million sterling) to the Ivory Coast Government to pay for the sinking of irrigation wells.

The agreement for the Euro-Dollar loan which is repayable in 10 years, was signed by the Ivory Coast Finance and Economy Minister Mr Henri Konan Bedie and M. Jean-Marie Auger, Deputy Director of the bank's Paris branch.

The wells to be dug in groups of 500, will be int he north of the Ivory Coast which is suffering from the West African drought.

The First National bank of Chicago has already helped with finance for the building of blocks of homes in the capital Abidjan.

The irrigation wells should help the country's strong agriculture develop even further.

The loan comes at a time when Ivory Coast President Felix Houphouet-Boigny has been highly critical of the present state of international cooperation.

"The world today remains a closed shop of national selfishness, of desire for power and of examples of in justice and inequality that never cease to multiply", he told more than 800 specialists at the opening earlier this month of the 14 session of the International Society For Development.

SYNOPSIS: At the Finance Ministry in Abidjan on Wednesday the finalising of a large loan for the Ivory Coast. M. Jean Marie Auger of the First National Bank of Chicago settled the deal with Henrik Konan Bedie Ivory Coast Finance Minister.

The bank is lending one point four million sterling, repayable in ten years. It will pay for irrigation wells in the north of the country, badly affected by drought. The wells will be drilled in blocks of five hundred
The loan will help to further develop the Ivory Coast's already strong and diverse agriculture.

The First National Bank of Chicago is already involved in the development of the Ivory Coast. They've loaned money for the building of blocks of modern homes in the capital.