The Attorney-General and Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, assumed the role of chair at the 49th Joint Governors meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank South East Asia (SEA) constituency meeting in the United States Capital, Washington, DC.

Thirteen countries are members of the South East Asia constituency, which along with Fiji includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao Peoples Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Tonga.

In his opening remarks, the A-G highlighted that the IMF’s latest forecast indicates that growth in the global economy remains below expectation. However, the economies of the SEA group have been resilient. Collectively, growth in the region is robust.

Economic outturns of the two member states in the Pacific Islands, Tonga and Fiji, remain favourable. This is in spite of difficulties confronted, such as the effects of Cyclone Winston and the general slowdown in the global economy.

The meeting included presentations by the Executive Director of the IMF SEA group, Marzumisham Omar, the Executive Director of the World Bank SEA group, Rionald Silaban, and IMF Chief Economist, Maurice Obstfeld.

The thrust of the presentations focused on subdued and complex recovery for the global economy.

The A-G along with the other honourable governors of the constituency exchanged their views on the economic performance, future challenges and opportunities for the region.

The governors also signed a memorandum of understanding in relation to the representation of group members at the World Bank SEA office for 2016 to 2032.

The role of chair is for one year and will rotate to Indonesia in 2017.

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