The International Monetary Fund’s Africa Regional Technical Assistance Centre South (AFRITAC South) will redouble its technical assistance and related training activities across Southern Africa countries, an IMF statement said Tuesday.
The statement, obtained by PANA in New York, said that IMF regional centre’s steering committee announced the decision at the end of a two-day meeting in Windhoek, Namibia.
It said the committee agreed to redouble the assistance to enhance the capacity of the countries to handle monetary and other economic-related issues.
The meeting also endorsed a close collaboration between AFRITAC South and the upcoming regional training centre for sub-Saharan Africa, to be established in Mauritius.
The statement said the meeting was attended by officials from nine AFRITAC South member countries, namely Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland,
Zambia, and Zimbabwe, representatives of donors and regional organisations and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Others are Australian Agency for International Development (AusAid), UK Government Department for International Development (DFID), European Union, European Investment
Bank, Swiss Economic Cooperation (SECO), as well as IMF staff.
Also, representatives of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) participated as observers.
The meeting discussed the results of the implementation of the work programme for 2012, as well as progress to date and plans for 2013 in the centre’s core areas of expertise, including public financial management, revenue administration, financial sector supervision, and real sector statistics.
