Minister of Finance Dr. Youssef Boutros Ghali said that the expanded meetings hosted by Egypt for the G-8 and Middle East countries will launch unprecedented initiatives to encourage the exchange of expertise and general cooperation to expedite economic and financial reforms and to enrich dialogue among zealous member states. Dr.  Ghali explained that  workshops will be organized and a leader will be assigned each group for discussions on reform.  Issues such as tax reform, foreign exchange rates, upgrading financial and banking sectors, auditing of financial sectors, in addition to financing small enterprises and dealing with poverty will be on the agenda.  Members are also concerned with increasing productivity, financial services and  stabilizing the economy as a whole.  Initiatives include  the International Finance Institute, a subsidiary of the  World Bank that calls for activating small and medium enterprises, the U.S. initiative to upgrade the performance of the financial sector and the counseling group to support the poor through  micro enterprises.  Other issues include joint initiatives between the fund for economic cooperation and development and the Arab business counsel under the chairmanship of Shafeek Gabr to improve the investment climate, in addition to the Arab fund initiative which finances basic needs for those initiatives in collaboration with financial institutions.

A chief executive within the IMF is  expected to present a draft proposal on regional financial markets and their relation to international balancing .  Dr. Ghali said the main idea is to activate the initiatives as to have an impact on the ME development. (Source: al-ahram)