CFMM to help showcase Lanka's trade and investment potential

Lynn OCKERSZ

COLOMBO: The Commonwealth Finance Ministers' Meeting (CFMM) which will be held in Colombo at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel from September 12 to 14, will help showcase Sri Lanka as rich in trade and investment opportunities, despite the current tensions.

The event which will feature the participation of some 240 State functionaries and officials from among Commonwealth countries, including 20 Ministers, will probably be the biggest international forum hosted by Sri Lanka since the 1976 Nonaligned Movement summit meeting, A. Abeygunasekera, Additional Director General, Department of External Resources, Ministry of Finance and Planning, told the Daily News yesterday.

The inaugural session of the CFMM will be declared open by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on September 12 evening while the formal sessions over the next two days will be chaired by Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama.

Held almost on the eve of the annual IMF-World Bank meeting in Singapore, in which deliberations the Commonwealth Finance Ministers too would participate, the CFMM would focus on the current world economic situation and prospects it holds.

Some issues to be discussed at the CFMM sessions are; the current oil prices, imbalances in major economies and how they affect developing countries, trade issues, the impact of high growth in large economies and sustainability questions.

The CFMM would enable the Commonwealth Finance Ministers to adopt a common stand on such issues at the upcoming IMF- World Bank sessions, Abeygunasekera explained.

Since the CFMM deliberations would be held under the theme, 'An agenda for growth and livelihood,' a special session of the talks would be devoted to growth and livelihoods.

These deliberations would incorporate the positions of the business community and civil society on growth and livelihoods.

An important event which will run parallel to the CFMM, is the BoI - coordinated Business Forum to be held on September 12.

Featuring the involvement of also the various Chambers of Sri Lanka, the forum would be chaired by the Chairman of Shell Company. The venue of the Business Forum will be the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Rajagiriya.

Featured at the Business Forum would be 19 trade and investment stalls, run by organizations, such as, BoI, the Export Development Board, Odel and Barefoot, highlighting Sri Lanka's business potential.

An agenda-setting meeting for the CFMM, featuring Finance officials, including Secretaries, will be held on the morning of September 12.

Some of the issues to be discussed at these preparatory talks are:

* How can current ways of delivering aid and debt relief to developing countries work better?

* How to handle increasing aid volumes (which by 2010 will have doubled in 15 years to $130 billion) and the financing mechanisms through which they are delivered?

* How to build on the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and improve the way international aid programmes are aligned with national government priorities, and coordinated among themselves?

Over the past few months the Commonwealth ran regional workshop in London, Bangladesh and Cameroons to sound out the developing countries on these issues.