April 30, 2014
IMF Opens Dialogue with Gulf Parliamentarians
*IMF hosts outreach to exchange views with parliamentarians from Gulf countries
*Goal is to improve understanding of IMF’s role in the region
*Focus on the region’s economic prospects, reforms needed to spur growth and jobs
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) provides a forum for parliamentarians from member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates—to exchange views on the Fund’s role and the economic issues facing the region.
Held during April 28-29 at the IMF Middle East Center for Economics and Finance (CEF) in Kuwait City, the two-day seminar aimed to foster greater understanding of the IMF’s role and familiarize participants with the macroeconomic analysis and policy tools underpinning its core policy consultations and programs, says IMF.
“Outreach to parliamentarians is important because they have a role to play in discussing economic legislations in their countries,” says Raja Almarzoqi, advisor in the IMF’s Middle East Department. The dialogue with them provides an opportunity to learn more about their views and concerns, explain the IMF policy advice, and discuss policy trade-offs their countries face,” he added.
Discussions with Gulf parliamentarians
The workshop combined presentations by IMF staff and case studies and was conducted in an interactive style. Discussion topics revolved around regional and global economic prospects, reforms to strengthen private sector growth and employment, challenges in energy subsidy reform, economic diversification, policy choices in managing natural resource revenues, monetary and exchange rate policies, and data issues.
They asked questions including on the role of the IMF and its governance structure, the future of economic diversification in the Gulf region, preconditions for monetary unions, and the role of monetary policy in growth and employment. Some participants stressed out the importance of female labor participation in the economy as well as the need to address issues in the informal sector and enable environment for the small-and-medium sized enterprises to flourish—topics that the IMF has also been advocating for.
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