Minister of Finance leads government delegation to IMF/World Bank meeting
Dr Kwabena Duffuor, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning is leading a Government delegation to the 2011 IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings to be held in Washington from September 20 – 26.
A release issued by the Ministry in Accra on Wednesday said the delegation was made up of officials from the Bank of Ghana including the Governor, Director General of National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) and officers from the Finance Ministry.
The delegation will also attend the Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting which precedes the IMF meetings. Other meetings they would attend include the G8 and G24 Ministerial Meetings, and the High Level Finance Minister’s Meeting on African Financial Sectors, a seminar titled “Africa Needs Growth that Delivers Jobs”.
Aside of the obligatory meetings with the fund and the bank, which will focus on job creation, gender issues and climate change – the three core themes of the 2011 meetings, the delegation will hold bilateral discussions with other partner countries, financial institutions, private investors, and global Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).
“We are very much concerned with issues of procurement and slow disbursement of donor funds in Ghana and will use the opportunity to explore ways to improve on that, as well as some peculiar challenges faced by emerging markets such as Ghana,” Dr Duffuor said.
Dr Duffuor has also been invited to speak at the “IMF High Level Seminar on Commodity Price Volatility and Growth in Low-income Countries” and the 13th Deutsche Bank Annual Emerging Markets Conference entitled “Emerging Africa”.
The Ghanaian delegation will sign a loan agreement with OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) for the Trauma and Acute Health Care Centre Project.
The Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund and the Board of Governors of the World Bank Group normally meet once a year to discuss the work of their respective institutions.
The annual meetings, which generally take place in September-October, have customarily been held in Washington for two consecutive years and in another member country in the third year.
The inaugural meeting of the Board of Governors was held in Savannah, Georgia, USA in March 1946. The first annual meetings were held in Washington in 1946.
The meetings normally include a day of plenary sessions, during which Governors take up matters of business and consult with one another, the Boards of Governors make decisions on how current international monetary issues should be addressed and approve corresponding resolutions.
They are chaired by a Governor of the Bank and the Fund, with the chairmanship rotating among the membership each year. Every two years it elects Executive Directors. Each year any new members are welcomed into the Bank and Fund.
The meetings bring such a large number of member country officials together, so they provide opportunities for consultations large and small, formal and informal.
Numerous seminars are held in conjunction with the meetings, including seminars conducted by staff members for members of the press.
The programme of seminars is designed to foster creative dialogue among the private sector, government delegates and senior Bank and Fund officials.
Source: GNA