Luxembourg Minister of Finance, Pierre Gramegna, was in Washington from Thursday 14 to Saturday 16 April 2016 to participate in the spring sessions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
On the sidelines of the sessions, the Minister held meetings with Frans Godts, Executive Director of the World Bank; Menno Snel, IMF Managing Director; Jose Vinals, Director of Money Markets and Capital at IMF; and Poul Thomsen, Director of the European Department of the IMF.
"The world economy is facing significant challenges," Minister Gramegna remarked. "The World Bank and the IMF have a key role to play in this context. However, it is above all on the States themselves to implement the structural reforms needed and to make targeted investments in infrastructure, to improve their competitiveness. Moreover, the IMF advises States to fully utilise the available fiscal manoeuvre, to stimulate growth. This is exactly what we do in Luxembourg."
The Luxembourg Finance Minister also used the trip to engage in a bilateral meeting with his Norwegian counterpart, Siv Jensen, with whom he held an exchange of views on recent developments in international taxation. He also received Bolor Bayarbaatar, Minister of Finance of Mongolia, and Advullah Hoti, Minister of Finance of Kosovo, at each meeting with which he discussed economic and financial affairs. Bilateral relations were also assessed between Luxembourg and Singaport, with Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat, and India, with Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley, following an economic mission to India led by Deputy PM Étienne Schneider in March 2016. Minister Gramegna additionally met with Enzo Defilippi, Deputy Economy Minister of Peru, to address economic and financial current events as well as bilateral relations between the two countries.
A working meeting was also arranged with Mark Mazur, Deputy Finance Minister of the United States in charge of tax policy, and Bob Stack, Assistant Deputy Finance Minister in charge of international taxation, to discuss the BEPS implementation, fiscal transparency and the automatic exchange of information, in the spirit of a 'level playing field'. The proposed changes regarding the agreement of double taxation between the US and Luxembourg also figured on the agenda.
On the initiative of the Ministry of Finance, the Luxembourg Embassy organised a dinner for leaders of major international financial insitutions such as the EBRD, EIB, CEB, AIIB and the African and Asian Development Banks, as well as the President of the European Commission, on Friday 15 April 2016.
"By putting around the same table the head of major international development financers, Luxembourg is once again proving its ability to build bridges between cultures and continents," stated Pierre Gramegna.
Top photo by IMF.ORG. Bottom Photo by MFIN (L-R): Pierre Gramegna; Menno Snel.
