Guyana will host 294 delegates from 44 countries at the Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting (CFMM) from Monday to Wednesday, with the special theme of climate change expected to dominate the three-day confab.
Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh at a press conference yesterday at the host venue, the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC) at Liliendaal said that “Guyana is pleased and proud to be the host of this meeting.”
He noted historically the meeting is important because it is timed to precede the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank meeting on October 20-22 in Washington, and it is a forum where the finance ministers can speak of pressing issues of the day before attending the Washington meeting.
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) will be held in Kampala, Uganda next month.
Of the 294 delegates, 184 comprise representatives from the 44 countries that have confirmed attendance and 21 persons are to be led by Deputy Commonwealth Secretary-General (Econo-mic) Ransford Smith, in place of the Secretary General, Donald C McKinnon who is attending a meeting in the Pacific. There will be 35 special observers and invitees from Caricom, the Caribbean Development Bank, the IMF, the World Bank and the Royal Mint among other guests. There will also be 40 persons from the Macroeconomic Financial Monetary Institute of Eastern and Southern Africa (MEFMI) along with 14 international media operatives. Although Zimbabwe will be attending MEFMI, a group of 13 African countries, it will not be attending the CFMM having pulled out of the Commonwealth because of pressure over the human rights situation in the country. Twenty-three of the 44 delegations are being headed at the ministerial level, while four are headed at the Prime Ministerial level. There are 53 states in the Commonwealth.
Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Belize, Said Musa; Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, Dr. Denzil Douglas; Prime Minister and Finance Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves and Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley are all expected to attend the CFMM.
Minister Singh noted that over the next few days the dominant theme will be climate change and the need for all to understand the economic and financial response to climate change. Guyana, he said, finds itself in a particularly vulnerable situation in relation to climate change, because of the heavy concentration on the coast.
In Washington at the IMF/World Bank meeting the finance ministers will reiterate climate change as a “global threat and a very real economic impact.”
A feature film on the Iwokrama Rainforest will be shown before the discussion on the special theme and the Deputy Secretary General will be visiting Iwokrama.
The minister said that one may debate the scale or the rapidity of climate change but the fact is “it is upon us.”
Some of the meetings on the sidelines of the CFMM are the MEFMI on today and ending Sunday, the Central Bank Governors meeting at the Central Bank on Monday morning and the Senior Finance Officials meeting at GICC, where the officials will engage in preparatory discussions in relation to the agenda. In the afternoon there will be a session on Debt-Shadow rating. The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) will also have a ministerial forum on Monday afternoon.
On Tuesday the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) at a breakfast dialogue at GICC will deliberate on disasters and inclusive banking at its first plenary session. World economic issues and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Process studies from four Commonwealth countries: The United Republic of Tanzania, Ghana, Malawi and Bangladesh will also be addressed. Discussions and a report on the technical theme will also be held on Tuesday at the Plenary: “Filling the Infrastructural Gap – Fiscal Space for Growth and Development” and the special theme Climate Change – The Challenges Facing Finance Ministers will also be discussed. The keynote speaker will be Sunita Narain from India. On Wednesday the plenary continues and reforming the aid architecture will be discussed. There will be discussions on trade developments and in the context of these discussions it is likely that the European Union sugar controversy will be discussed, said the minister. Guyana is also set to have bilateral meetings at the CFMM but the names of the countries were not given.
The official opening ceremony will be held on Monday evening.
