Oil prices, poverty key issues at Commonwealth parley

Channa Kasturisinghe and Hiran H. Senewiratne

COLOMBO: Finance Ministers of 53 Commonwealth countries are here in Colombo to discuss crucial issues including rising world oil prices and poverty that affect developing countries.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon told the media yesterday that the Finance Ministers' meeting which starts today would be a precursor to the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Singapore later this week.

"We expect to arrive at a common understanding on the problems which affect developing members of the Commonwealth and influence World Bank's and IMF's policies on such matters," McKinnon said. The Ministerial meeting will give high priority to the issue of rising global oil prices.

McKinnon said the presence of major oil producing countries such as Canada and Nigeria at the meeting would enable non-oil producing countries to better understand the issue and adjust accordingly.

"The member countries can also share important information on using alternative fuels such as ethanol and energy saving measures adopted by each country," McKinnon said. It is expected that the Colombo meeting would play a vital role in the process of cancelling debt of developing countries which would reduce their financial burden to a large extent.

McKinnon said earlier in a statement that Commonwealth efforts resulted in over US$ 120 billion of debt being cancelled in 30 countries.

"We can debate again in Colombo - and trigger the same scale of results," he said.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa will be the chief guest at the opening ceremony to be held at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel. There will be three important meetings including the meeting of top Finance Ministry officials and heads of Central Banks of Commonwealth countries to be held today and the meeting of Ministers on Wednesday.

"Another very important meeting is the Commonwealth Business Council meeting jointly organised by the Board of Investment. These meetings will enable us to showcase our economic opportunities while boosting our tourism industry," the Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs Dr. Sarath Amunugama said.

One of the key sessions of the meeting, which takes place just before Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, will be on the theme 'An Agenda for Growth and Livelihoods.' Ministers are expected to explore different ways and means of promoting inclusive growth, which generates livelihoods that reduce poverty.

The Minister said that a new paper presented by Shankar Acharya, Chief Economic Adviser during India's economic liberalisation programme in 1991, would trigger a lively debate at this meeting.

The arenas of trade, international aid and issues of small and vulnerable economies will also feature on the Meeting's agenda.