Finance Minister calls for urgent increase in IDB capital base

Saturday, November 21, 2009 9:11 PM

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Friday, July 03, 2009

The Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw, is calling for an urgent increase in capital for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which he said, "is an issue that cannot be allowed to drag on any longer by indecisio and procrastination".

Speaking at a special meeting of the Board of Governors of the IDB in Santiago, Chile, Shaw, who is the governor for Jamaica, said that the IDB has an even more crucial role to play in the region, bearing in mind the additional challenges being faced by countries of the region, including small, and heavily indebted middle income countries like Jamaica.

Shaw commended the Government of Canada for its pledge of US$4 billion towards the IDB capital base, and urged the other G20 countries to immediately fulfil their pledges to assist developing countries by providing funds for the increased capitalisation of the IDB and other international financial institutions.

The finance minister said that while he supported the observations of some Governors, including the United States and Mexico, on the need for improved focus, identification of resources demand, and governance issues at the IDB, these, he said, should be fast-tracked so that the IDB can be given more resources to help spearhead the economic transformation of the region.

Meanwhile, Minister Shaw will also attend the Second Annual Hemispheric Conference of Finance Ministers of Latin America and the Caribbean in Piña Del Mar, Chile today.

He is also scheduled to have dialogue with Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn; president of the World Bank, Robert Zoullick; and the President of the IDB, Luis Alberto Moreno, all of whom will be in attendance at the conference.