Finance Minister, Team In Washington

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips is now in Washington DC, USA, where he is slated to participate in a series of meetings with his counterparts at the 2013 Commonwealth Finance Minister’s Meeting (CFMM) as well as meetings with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the World Bank (WB). Phillips left the island Friday with members of his team – Governor of the Bank of Jamaica, Brian Wynter; the Director General of Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), Colin Bullock; the Financial Secretary, Devon Rowe; and the Technical Advisor to the minister, Ms Helen McIntosh – and is expected to return on October 13. While in Washington, the Minister is expected to make representation to the executives directors of IMF, IADB and WB as a part of an advocacy grouping of delegates on behalf of Commonwealth Small States. The Ministry of Finance and Planning in a release Saturday said the advocacy mission is to engage dialogue and raise awareness of financing and debt challenges facing small states and draw attention to options for addressing these challenges. The release also said that before Phillips and his team returns to the island, he will attend the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the IMF and WB, which is a forum of member institutions discussing current international monetary issues, as well as a series of bi-lateral meetings with Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF; Alberto Moreno, president of the IADB; and Sri Mulyani Indrawata, managing director of the World Bank. The team is also expected to meet with senior officials in the US Department of State and the US Treasury Department as well as participate in the Group of Thirty International Banking Seminar, which will include representatives from Germany, Japan, the European Central Bank and the USA.