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Commonwealth Secretariat press release

Commonwealth Finance Ministers to Hold Press Conference at World Bank on 28 September 1996

20 September 1996

Finance Ministers from five Commonwealth countries, including G7 members Britain and Canada, who have been chosen to represent the 53-member group, will hold a press conference at 9.30 a.m. on Saturday 28 September in Room J1050 (first floor), World Bank, prior to the Interim and Development Committee meetings.

Those taking part will be the Hon S M Kibria, Minister of Finance, Bangladesh, the Hon Festus Mogae, Vice-President and Minister of Finance, Botswana, the Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Britain, the Hon Paul Martin, Minister of Finance, Canada, and the Hon Dr Omar Davies, Minister of Finance, Jamaica. The Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, will act as Chairman.

The Ministers will arrive in Washington directly from the annual meeting of Commonwealth Finance Ministers which is being held in Bermuda from 25 to 26 September.

They have been delegated the task of reporting on the outcome of the Bermuda meeting and proposals they intend to pursue in Washington.


Note to Editors: Please see background note for details.

Commonwealth Finance Ministers Press Conference Washington, 28 September, 1996

Background Note on Issues:
The unresolved problem of multilateral debt received high priority in the deliberations of Commonwealth Finance Ministers this year. A concrete proposal for multilateral debt relief was first launched at the Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting in Malta (1994) by Chancellor Clarke of Britain. Following this, there has been a growing recognition that there was a multilateral debt problem that had to be tackled comprehensively by international financial institutions. The Commonwealth Secretary-General wrote to G7 leaders prior to the Lyon Summit in June urging support for the Commonwealth position. Following the impetus given at the Lyon Summit, Ministers pushed for a substantial strengthening of current proposals on multilateral debt in relation to the eligibility criteria, the waiting period before relief is triggered, funding arrangements and equitable burden sharing between the World Bank and the IMF and between bilateral and multilateral creditors.

Commonwealth Ministers also gave attention to the implications of Mexico-type crises for the global financial system and the risks associated with the volatility of private capital flows. This topic (under the title "Private Capital Flows and Development: Role of National and International Policies") was a special theme of their Bermuda meeting. In this connection, Ministers discussed the adequacy of existing international arrangements for emergency financing and the feasibility of other innovative proposals advanced recently by the G10 on insolvency and orderly debt workouts.

Ministers also focused on the uncertainty regarding IDA arising out of the lack of progress on the US fulfilment of its commitment to IDA-10 which could unravel the carefully crafted agreement on IDA-11. In this connection, Ministers considered ways of breaking the impasse and mobilising support to put IDA on a self-sustaining basis. They also discussed the role of Commonwealth development co-operation in supporting socio-economic development in member countries.

Following the successful launch of the Commonwealth Africa Investment Fund which was established to channel commercial investments into new and small and medium sized private sector businesses, the Ministers gave their support for similar funds to be set up in the Pacific and the Caribbean.

Comprehensive strategies for combatting money laundering were endorsed by the ministers, including raising standards to the minimum set by the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) 40 recommendations, endorsement of the Commonwealth guidelines for banks and other financial institutions to track money laundering and regional initiatives. They also considered the role that international financial institutions could play in this area.

Note to Editors:
The Commonwealth consists of 53 member countries from each of the world's regions. It includes among its members two G7 countries, some of the dynamic newly industrialising economies of the Far East, and some of the poorest, most populous and smallest countries in the world.

The Commonwealth's 53 member countries are: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Britain, Brunei Darussalam, Cameroon, Canada, Cyprus, Dominica, The Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Western Samoa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Issued by the Information and Public Affairs Division, Commonwealth Secretariat,
Marlborough House,
Pall Mall,
London SW1Y 5HX,
United Kingdom.
Tel: 0207-839 3411;
Fax: 0207-839 9081;
Telex: 27678

96/43 20 September 1996

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