Mangala assumes Chairmanship of G-24

The 98th meeting of Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four on International Monetary Affairs and Development (G-24) was held in Washington, D.C. on 12 October.

Minister of Finance and Media Mangala Samaraweera assumed the Chairmanship of the G-24 on behalf of Sri Lanka. The last occasion Sri Lanka held the Chairmanship was in 1999 during President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s tenure as Finance Minister.

In his address, Minister Samaraweera stated that the G-24 will focus on “continuing our collective and shared efforts to achieve our broad objective of improving living standards of the people in our countries.”

Minister Samaraweera also stressed the need to focus efforts on enhancing inclusive, equitable and climate resilience growth and creating employment opportunities.

“Experience has shown that growth in output alone is not enough to improve the welfare of the people. It is widely agreed that the transformation of the economy from a fundamentally agrarian, subsistence one to an urbanised, integrated, enterprise-dominated one is important for sustainable economic development,” the Minister added.

He further reiterated that the continued engagement of the group on inclusive growth and productivity improvement to create employment opportunities will be one of the key priorities.

Minister Samaraweera underscored the importance of finding financing for development initiatives.

“Financing for development remains an urgent priority. Finding ways and means to fulfill this need is another key area that we must focus on at various fora. The promotion of international trade, innovation and private sector investments will also require our continued attention,” the Minister added.