CFMC, springboard for consensus among Commonwealth States on global economic issues

Ruwanthi Abeyakoon

The Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting which opens in Colombo today would enable Commonwealth countries to evolve consensual positions on world economic issues at the subsequent IMF - World Bank Meet, former Finance Minister and Presidential Economic Advisor Ronnie de Mel said in an interview yesterday.

The interview:

Q: What is the significance of the Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting and why is it being held in Sri Lanka this time?

A: The Commonwealth Secretariat organises an Annual Meeting of Commonwealth Finance Ministers every year just before the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the IMF. These meetings have been held every year for over 50 years.

They are usually held just before the annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF which are held in September every year. In some ways these meetings are timed in this way not only for the convenience of Finance Ministers who have to attend both meetings but also in order to evolve some sort of consensus among the countries of the Commonwealth on current world economic issues just before the meetings of the World Bank and the IMF.

For the convenience of Finance Ministers attending both meetings, the meeting of Finance Ministers is normally held in a Commonwealth country as close as possible to the venue of the Annual World Bank and IMF meeting.

Normally, the annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF are held in Washington and therefore the Commonwealth Finance Ministers meetings are held very often as close as possible to Washington. For example in a country in the Carribean, Bermuda and Canada.

This year the World Bank and IMF Meetings are being held in Singapore and Colombo has been chosen as the venue for the Commonwealth Finance Ministers meeting, because it is probably the closest Commonwealth country to Singapore.

Q: What are the issues that will be taken up at the meeting?

A: I am personally not aware of the exact agenda of this year's meeting. But I may speak from my experience of 11 meetings of Commonwealth Finance Ministers which I have attended as the leader of the Sri Lanka delegation when I was the Minister of Finance and Planning for 11 years in this country.

In these meetings, we used to discuss the main international economic issues of the day. We tried to arrive at some sort of consensus in preparation for the World Bank and IMF meetings that would follow. We also discussed the current work of the Commonwealth Secretariat in the economic and financial area, its technical assistance program and connected matters.

Q: Will Sri Lanka and its economy be specifically discussed at the meeting?

A: There is no provision for the discussion of specific economic issues of each Commonwealth country at these meetings. Only general question affecting all and particularly the poorer countries of the Commonwealth are specifically discussed. Current problems affecting the world economy as a whole are also taken up. Technical assistance in which the Commonwealth Secretariat is always interested also features prominently at these meetings. The problems of poverty and debt of countries also feature prominently in the discussions.

Q: Will these meetings deal with any of Sri Lanka's immediate economic problems?

A: As I told you earlier, these meetings deal with broad economic issues affecting all countries in the Commonwealth, particularly the poorer countries. The individual problems of each country are not taken up in these meetings.

Such problems can of course, be taken up individually and bi-laterally with the countries concerned if necessary. There are always individual one to one meetings of the concerned Commonwealth Finance Ministers in the background of these meetings. Such individual meetings in the background of this main meeting sometimes yield very good results.

For example, when I was the Minister of Finance, I made it a special point to have such individual personal meetings with the Finance Ministers of all the countries that were then giving aid for Sri Lanka's development program and also with the countries that had bi-lateral trade and investment with us.

I also used this opportunity to promote our tourism, our gems and anything that would help the economic development of our land. Such bi-lateral meetings in the background of the main meeting sometimes yielded very good results.