April 26, 1999 Recovery of emerging market countries hit hard by financial contagion, and possible adjustments in global structures monitoring finance flows and providing liquidity in emergency situations, are among the issues that will be raised at the second-ever meeting of Bretton Woods leaders with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, to be held at United Nations Headquarters in New York, on 29 April from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Council President Francesco Paolo Fulci, Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations, will chair the meeting. Representatives from the 54 countries that are Council members will represent the United Nations at the meeting.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Michel Camdessus, World Bank President James Wolfensohn, Development Committee Chairman Tarrin Nimmanahaeminda - who is Minister of Finance of Thailand - and Interim Development Committee Chairman Carlo Azeglio Ciampi - the Italian Minister of the Treasury - are among the panellists who will speak on behalf of the Bretton Woods institutions. They and other ministerial representatives will travel to New York at the conclusion of the 27 - 28 April meetings of the World Bank/IMF Interim and Development Committees.
The first such meeting of the Economic and Social Council and representatives of the Bretton Woods institutions was held in April 1998, in New York. Consultations between the three multilateral institutions has intensified since then, spurred by the unexpected length and severity of global financial instability and its unexpectedly harsh impact on living standards. The extent to which the work of the three institutions has become intertwined was illustrated clearly earlier this year.
In January, the United Nations Secretariat issued a comprehensive set of recommendations on reforming the international financial architecture ("Towards a new international financial architecture"). That same month, World Bank President James Wolfensohn circulated for comments his proposal for a "Comprehensive Development Framework", which would sharpen the Bank's focus on areas - such as clean water, health care, women's rights, cultural preservation - in which the United Nations traditionally has been deeply involved. Preparation has already begun in the United Nations for an upcoming world conference on the theme of "financing for development", which would focus on issues central to the work of the Bank and the IMF.
There is no agenda for the informal Bretton Woods - Economic and Social Council discussion on 29 April, but a document prepared by the United Nations Secretariat (E/1994/42) suggests some likely areas of discussion:
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