Joint meeting reaffirms commitment to poverty reduction, especially in Africa

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Following are edited excerpts of a press conference held after the joint meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) and the Development Committee on April 29 in Washington.

SINHA:While we discussed the issue of strengthening growth and fighting poverty in the developing countries, the emphasis in this meeting was clearly on the HIPCs [Heavily Indebted Poor Countries] and largely, therefore, on Africa.We took note of the joint visit to Africa of the President of the World Bank and the Managing Director of the IMF. They held discussions with African leaders and at the end of it they addressed communications to Chancellor Brown and to me in our respective capacities. That was a very important input for the discussions this afternoon.

On all of the issues that we had before us, we have received some very valuable insight and advice with regard to our future direction. I think the world community is completely committed to the processes of poverty reduction and growth, to debt forgiveness, to enhanced flows of official development assistance, to peace and conflict resolution, and to the question of better market access for the products of the developing countries, especially the HIPCs, to all markets, especially the markets of the developed countries.

The joint meeting has been extremely useful.Once again, the world community has come together to reconfirm, reaffirm, reiterate its commitment to poverty reduction in the developing countries and especially in Africa.

BROWN: I think you'll find the communiqué is the strongest statement yet that what we can achieve together-developed countries and developing countries, IMF and World Bank-is so much greater than what we can achieve on our own, and to achieve it not simply for debt relief as we move forward with that program. By creating a virtuous circle of debt reduction, poverty reduction, and sustainable development, we can meet the 2015 international development targets to which we have all subscribed-World Bank, IMF, and individual countries.

You will see in the communiqué also a recognition of the importance of the resumption of the multilateral trade talks so that we can open up markets to developing countries in a way that has not been done before.

Almost all the speakers around the table emphasized that point, the importance of the development aid budgets, the importance we attach to the poverty reduction strategy papers, and the praise we give to IMF...