Asia-Pacific

ROK FM to attend IMF-WB meeting ahead of G20 Summit

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-10-05 17:48

SEOUL - South Korea's finance minister will fly for Washing D.C. to attend the annual International Monetary Fund-World Bank meeting, planning to chair a committee meeting and delivering a keynote speech there, the finance ministry said Tuesday.

According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun will leave Seoul on Wednesday to attend the three-day meeting that starts Friday.

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Yoon is scheduled to attend the opening ceremony as governor of South Korea and later to preside a joint meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) and G20 as chair of the upcoming G20 Summit, the finance ministry said in a press release.

The meeting will deal with reform of the IMF's governing structure and quota system, both of which are major agendas of the Seoul Summit as well, the ministry said.

Minister Yoon is also set to attend the Saturday IMFC meeting where he will give a keynote speech, highlighting the need to structure a global financial safety net, to improve financial regulation, and to develop a new development paradigm.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Yoon plans to hold bilateral talks with finance ministers from several countries, such as India, Switzerland, and Saudi Arabia, in order to finetune agendas for the ministerial-level G20 meeting which will be held in South Korea's southern city of Gyeongju on October 22 and 23, as well as the Seoul Summit.