Statement by Press Secretary Fitzwater on the Appointment of Ronald W. Roskens as a Deputy Coordinator for United States Assistance to Eastern Europe

The President today announced the appointment of AID Administrator Ronald W. Roskens as an additional Deputy Coordinator for U.S. Assistance to Eastern Europe. The Coordinator is Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger, and the two current Deputy Coordinators are Deputy Secretary of Treasury John Robson and Council of Economic Advisors Chairman Michael Boskin.

The Office of the Coordinator was created in December 1989 in connection with the Support for Eastern European Democracy (SEED) Act of that year to oversee the effective delivery of U.S. assistance and support to the economic reforms then being undertaken by Poland and Hungary. Since then, as political and economic reforms have spread to most of Eastern Europe, the SEED program and the work of the Coordinator has also been extended.

U.S. grant assistance for Central and Eastern Europe amounts to more than $1 billion for 1989 - 91, with an additional $470 million requested for FY 1992. AID is involved in the administration of most of this assistance and channels a substantial portion of it through the Enterprise Funds for Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, which are directed by private boards to finance enterprise development in these three countries.