AMF, IMF enhance cooperation

Washington, Apr. 20 (BNA): The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) pledged to enhance cooperation to respond more effectively to needs of their common membership in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed on Sunday. The MOU was signed by IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and Director General and Chairman of the AMF Dr. Abdulrahman Al Hamidy, according to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA). "This agreement will strengthen our partnership with the Arab Monetary Fund and allow us to tap into its vast expertise in the issues facing the region. It also illustrates our strong commitment to step up our engagement with the region in terms of policy advice and capacity development," said Lagarde after the ceremony, an IMF statement indicated. The AMF and the IMF share common objectives of maintaining macroeconomic and financial stability, and accelerating broad-based and inclusive economic growth and job creation in the Arab region, in addition to strengthening capacity building. "Supporting capacity development in our member countries has always been among our top priorities," Al Hamidy said. "Our long and well established cooperation with the IMF has always been successful and we are glad that today it's being reinforced and strengthened to better serve the needs of our common member countries. "Under the MOU, the AMF and the IMF will continue to provide training opportunities to Arab officials, support the development of domestic capital markets in the Arab countries, and strengthen their collaboration on the Arabstat initiative, which aims at the development of efficient statistical systems in the region," said the statement. The two parties also intend to carry out joint analytical work to inform Arab finance ministers and central bank governors, and to organize high level events on topics of mutual interests and priority for the region, KUNA reported.