Guingona off to Mexico meet

Vice President and Foreign Affairs Secretary Teofisto Guingona Jr. leaves for Monterrey, Mexico today for a top-level international event on financing for development on March 21 to 22.

Joining him in the Philippine delegation is National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Director General Dante Canlas and Finance Undersecretary Juanita Amatong.

Guingona said he would be attending the summit segment of the United Nations (UN) conference to address essential financial issues related to global development.

He will also join a roundtable discussion entitled "Financing for Development –Looking Ahead" to be co-chaired by the heads of the World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The Vice President said the international event is the culmination of decades of preparations to address the question of financing for development, largely prompted by the Asian financial crisis and the ensuing turbulence in the global economy.

Issues to be discussed in the summit include international financial cooperation for development, official development assistance (ODA) and debt relief, enhancing financial and trading systems in support of development, and avoidance of an international financial crisis.

Guingona said participants are expected to issue the Monterrey Consensus, a document that would address, among others, mobilization of international and domestic resources for development, international trade as an engine for development, and increase in global financial and technical cooperation and external debt.