Press Release No. 10/412
November 6, 2010

The First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), John Lipsky, and the Minister of Finance of Kuwait, H.E. Mustafa Al-Shamali, signed today a Memorandum of Understanding to establish an IMF-Middle East Center for Economics and Finance (CEF) in Kuwait.

The CEF, which will be inaugurated in May 2011, will play an important role in building capacity for economic decision-making and policy implementation in all Arab League member countries. Training events at the CEF will target government officials from Arab League countries involved in the formulation and implementation of macroeconomic and financial policies. Courses and seminars at the CEF will cover macroeconomic adjustment policies and financial programming, public finance, trade and exchange rate policies, bank supervision, financial sectoral issues, the interaction between finance and macroeconomics, and statistics. The center will also invite other international and regional organizations to provide training at the CEF in their respective areas of expertise, thereby expanding the range of courses and seminars offered.

The center, which is hosted and financed by the Kuwaiti authorities, will have an open membership architecture, allowing for joint sponsorship by other countries and institutions in the region.