On the sidelines of the Annual Meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington D.C, the Attorney General and Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum participated in two events – the third ministerial dialogue of the V20 Group of Finance Ministers and the 2016 Small States Forum.

Forty emerging economies, including Fiji, that form the Vulnerable Twenty (V20) Group met to discuss how finance is key to driving the urgent national action on climate change.

The meeting also considered updates on key initiatives launched by the V20 Finance Ministers in April 2016, including the Global Preparedness Partnership.

The A-G highlighted the need for focused areas of cooperation and shared initiatives undertaken by the Fijian Government to build capacity to access climate finance, including partnering with UNESCAP to provide training for finance officials from Pacific islands to improve regional understanding of climate finance frameworks.

The A-G was also a panelist in the 2016 Small States Forum of the World Bank.  The panel which included senior officials of the World Bank and Ministers of Finance from Grenada and São Tomé and Príncipe, discussed the challenges and opportunities of equitable growth, resilience and financing partnerships in Small States.

The A-G stressed the vulnerability of middle income Small States, noting that for Pacific economies, climate change cannot be delinked from development.

The A-G called for the broadening of the criteria for allocation of concessional financing to include small state middle income (IBRD) countries and scaling up of resources to finance adaptation and mitigation measures.  He commented on the interdependency between IBRD and IDA countries and urged the World Bank in particular, to set up a facility specifically for middle income Small States to access post disaster financing.

The AG further called on the Bank to support regional initiatives that could provide Small States opportunities to diversify and grow their economies.