Commonwealth Secretariat
  1. Home
  2. What's New
  3. Who We Are
  4. What We Do
    1. Democracy
    2. Economics
    3. Education
    4. Gender
    5. Governance
    6. Health
    7. Human Rights
    8. Law
    9. Small States
    10. Sport
    11. Sustainability
    12. Youth
    13. Millennium Development Goals
    14. Funding
  5. News
    1. Events
    2. News Archive Search
    3. Picture Stories
  6. Media Room
    1. Press Archive Search
    2. Media Contacts
    3. Video
    4. Events
    5. In the Media
    6. Updates
    7. Downloads
  7. Resources
    1. Documents
    2. Image Library
    3. Libary & Archives
    4. Publications
  8. Publications
  9. Employment
  10. FAQs
    1. Acronyms
  11. Contact Us
Commonwealth Secretariat press release

‘Growth with or without new jobs?’ – Commonwealth Finance Ministers to re-examine the secrets of economic success

8 September 2006

Commonwealth Finance Ministers will seek new answers to old questions when they meet in Colombo from 12-14 September 2006.

"We will again ask ourselves what is the secret of economic growth, and how that growth can best create jobs and livelihoods in the process. We know that economic growth rests in the hands of developing countries themselves - but we will ask how much developed countries can help, or hinder, the process", says Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon. "Many of our Commonwealth members need to see faster growth - and I am looking towards a new paper by Shankar Acharya, Chief Economic Adviser during India's economic liberalisation programme in 1991, to trigger a lively debate.

"Commonwealth Finance Ministers have debated before, and changed the world. Never more so than in 1987, when it was they who started the process of canceling developing countries' bilateral debt, and in 1997 when they initiated multilateral debt relief. 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.

"I expect similar progress when we ask ourselves how current ways of delivering aid and debt relief to developing countries can work better. Likewise, our talks on the vulnerabilities of small states will lead to new approaches which move away from relying on trade preferences, and towards repositioning economies with new export strategies. So, too, our review of the so-called 'Washington Consensus'. The building blocks of economic growth captured in the Consensus have been increasingly challenged by politicians and academics alike - and we will do likewise."

Mr McKinnon will visit Sri Lanka from 11-13 September 2006. He will meet Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe. He will speak at the opening ceremony of the Finance Ministers Meeting, alongside President Rajapakse.

 

Note to Editors

Since its inception the Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting has sought to prepare Ministers for their discussions at the IMF/ World Bank Meetings which take place immediately after.

Speeches, meeting documents, photographs and audio clips will be available for download on the Commonwealth Secretariat website http://www.thecommonwealth.org/cfmm.

For media inquiries please contact Minelle Fernandez on +44-7730900020 or +94-775469021.

Share this page
About this

ISSUED BY THE COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIVISION
Commonwealth Secretariat Marlborough House Pall Mall London SW1Y 5HX United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7747 6385/6 Fax: +44 (0)20 7839 9081
Email: info@commonwealth.int