Muhith to attend Commonwealth finance ministers’ meeting tomorrow

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BALI (Indonesia), Oct 10 (BSS) – Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith will attend the Commonwealth finance minister level meeting here in Bali tomorrow.

Finance ministers of 53 Commonwealth member states will take part in the meeting where they likely to discuss financing solutions to help assess the risk of natural disasters of these countries.

The meeting will be held on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank annual meetings 2018 at Bali Nusa Dua Convention Centre tomorrow.

Besides, World Bank Group President Dr Jim Yong Kim will meet Finance Minister Muhith at Hotel Westin Bali tomorrow.

Officials said Muhith will also hold meeting with Indonesian Finance Minister Mulyani Indrawati, World Bank South Asia Regional Vice President Hartwig Schafer, Executive Vice President and CEO of MIGA Honda and IMF Regional Vice President Snezana Stoiljkovic, and attend a lunch to be hosted by the Executive Director of the World Bank on the same day.

According to the Commonwealth and the Annual Meetings 2018 organisers, the Commonwealth Finance Ministers’ meeting under the theme ‘Enhancing national capacity to reduce disaster risk’ will consider Commonwealth proposals, including an online portal to simplify access to disaster finance and placing long-term advisors in member countries to develop funding applications for disaster risk management.

The ministers will also discuss Commonwealth work on defining and measuring vulnerability.

The meeting will feature a keynote address by Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Disaster Risk Reduction Mami Mizutori.

“Natural disasters are increasingly inflicting massive negative economic and environmental impacts on Commonwealth countries,” Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland said on Monday.

The proposed Commonwealth Disaster Risk Finance Portal will serve as a ‘one stop shop’ for streamlined access to the numerous financing tools already available.

It will include guidance on navigating the complex funding processes and broad range of providers, each with differing eligibility and access criteria, and challenging terms and conditions.

The finance ministers will consider extending the Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub’s advisory and technical support to the member states to cover disaster finance more widely, especially for smaller and more vulnerable Commonwealth countries.

That would broaden the success of the programme, which has already been instrumental in helping mobilise more than 4 million pound sterling for climate projects in various parts of the Commonwealth, with a further 140 million pound in the pipeline.

The ministers will also discuss the concept of a new universal economic vulnerability index to focus on the economic, environmental, socio-political causes of vulnerability.

The finance minister level meeting is the longest established annual ministerial meeting in the cycle of intergovernmental Commonwealth gatherings, which provides an opportunity for ministers collectively to consider approaches to emerging global issues and the economic development work programme of the Commonwealth.

Meanwhile, around 12,000 to 15,000 people will attend the Annual Meetings, including about 3,500 delegates from 189 countries, roughly 1,000 media representatives, and more than 5,000 participants from private sector, banking sector, academic institutions, civil society organisations, and also observers and parliamentarians.