NAIROBI, March 27 (Reuter) - Financial sector reforms will
be the centrepiece of a three-day meeting of African economic
leaders and Western creditors in the Ethiopian capital, Addis
Ababa, next week.
Organisers said this week that the March 31-April 2
conference called by the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa
(ECA) would bring together at least 30 finance ministers and 20
central bank governors from the world's poorest continent.
ECA spokesman Peter Da Costa said in a statement the meeting
will discuss the heavy burden of Africa's debt, within the
framework of the ``Debt Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries''.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have been
working since last year on a plan to reduced the debt burden of
those countries. The World Bank has set up a $500 million trust
fund to provide relief for countries with good track records on
economic reform but with unsustainable levels of indebtedness.
Diplomats said African countries welcome the initiative
because it focuses on multilateral debt, which was previously
excluded from debt renegotiation.
The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Bank
for International Settlements, the Nordic Investment Bank, the
Arab Bank for Economic Development, the Organisation of Economic
Cooperation and Development and the World Trade Organisation
will be represented at the Ethiopia conference, documents
showed.
``Many countries have embarked on reforms that focus on
reducing financial repression, restoring bank solvency and
improving financial structures...The implementation of those
reforms has created problems in some countries. The conference
will discuss country experiences in detail,'' Da Costa said.
The ministers will seek ways to establish bourses and to
strengthen African capital markets to make them more attractive
for local and foreign investment.
Da Costa said the ministers would focus on using the 15
African stock exchanges to mobilise and allocate resources.
Under the theme ``financial sector reforms and debt
management'', the meeting will discuss the role of multilateral
institutions in African development.
Da Costa said: ``They have come to assume pivotal positions
as suppliers of development finance, advisers of African
governments and reference points for donor funding for Africa.''
The conference will take stock and examine the future role
of those institutions in regard to Africa's efforts to achieve
sustainable development, reduce poverty and participate fully in
a globalized and liberalised economy, African diplomats said.
Da Costa saw the conference as giving Africans an
opportunity to discern what support they expected from these
institutions, taking into account a range of financial advances
that the international financial systems have recently made.
``Given the range of financial instruments that have emerged,
the institutional framework needed for effective intermediation,
Africa will need all the help it can,'' he said.
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