UNITED NATIONS TO HOST FINANCE MINISTERS FROM BRETTON WOODS INSTITUTIONS

                                                            Note No. 5665

                                                            30 April 2001

Note to Correspondents

UNITED NATIONS TO HOST FINANCE MINISTERS FROM BRETTON WOODS INSTITUTIONS

On 1 May , the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is organizing a discussion of issues critical to reducing poverty and to promoting international financial stability with key financial decision makers, including finance ministers and central bank governors chairing Bretton Woods committees and high-level officials of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will address the closed meeting tomorrow, and ensuing discussions will be chaired by ECOSOC President Martin Belinga-Eboutou (Cameroon) and by ECOSOC Vice-President Ivan Šimonovic (Croatia).

Five panellists are assigned prominent roles in the talks:  Gordon Brown, Chairperson of the International Monetary and Financial Committee, Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom; Yashwant Sinha, Chairperson of the Development Committee, Minister of Finance of India; Chief J.O. Sanusi, Chairperson of the Group of 24, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria;

Paul Martin, Chairperson of the Group of 20, Minister of Finance of Canada; and Andrew Crockett, Chairperson of the Financial Stability Forum and General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements.

A press briefing by the panellists and the ECOSOC President will take place at 2:45 p.m. on 1 May, in room S-226 of United Nations Headquarters.

Participants in the ECOSOC meeting also will include Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette; Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Nitin Desai; United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Mark Malloch Brown; International Monetary Fund (IMF) Deputy Managing Director Eduardo Aninat; World Bank Managing Director Sven Sandstrom; and World Bank Vice-President for External Relations Mats Karlsson.

The ECOSOC meeting takes place one day after the conclusion of the annual spring meeting of the World Bank and the IMF, held in Washington, D.C. It marks the fourth consecutive year in which ECOSOC has hosted finance officials following the spring meeting in Washington.

The backdrop to this year's meeting includes a slowing world economy and concern as to its effect on the ability to marshal resources and to sustain economic growth sufficient to reduce world poverty.  Restrained growth in the world's largest economy and bouts of investor nervousness have also raised concern as to international preparedness, in the event of a return of financial instability like that which occurred several times during the 1990s.

                                    - 2 -                   Note No. 5665

                                                            30 April 2001

The agenda for tomorrow's ECOSOC meeting has two overarching themes:

-- Development financing:  in particular poverty eradication, official     development assistance (ODA), and debt; and

-- Towards a development-friendly international financial system:          public and private responsibility in the prevention of financial         crises.

Issues related to the first theme will figure prominently in the upcoming Third United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries, to take place from 14 to 20 May in Brussels.  The international financial system, and means to fight poverty are also on the agenda for the International Conference on Financing for Development, which will be held in the first quarter of 2002 in Mexico.  The Preparatory Committee for the International Conference on Financing for Development is working in close consultation with the Bretton Woods institutions.

Journalists without United Nations credentials who wish to attend the

1 May press briefing should fax a letter of assignment to (1-212) 963 4642, and follow up with a call to the United Nations Media Accreditation Unit at (1-212) 963 7164 or 963 6934.  For information on photo opportunities, call Sonia Lecca on (1-212) 963 6934.

For more information, contact Tim Wall, of the Development and Human Rights Section, Department of Public Information, on (1-212) 963 5851 or

e-mail wallt@un.org.

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