Ms. Nemat Shafik, Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Ambassador Beatrice Maser Mallor, Head of Economic Cooperation and Development of Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), signed an agreement today on Switzerland’s additional contribution of US$4 million to support IMF technical assistance in the Middle East and Central Asia.

“The IMF is pleased that Switzerland—one of the largest and most important contributors to IMF technical assistance—has decided to add US$4 million to building capacity in Arab countries in transition, such as Tunisia, and in Central Asia and the Caucasus,” Ms. Shafik said. “This additional contribution agreement expands on our long-standing partnership, which has been highly successful in delivering results. We look forward to further deepening this partnership in the spirit of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness to the benefit of recipient countries.”

“Switzerland has a longstanding cooperation with the IMF for the delivery of technical assistance in partner countries, with first activities going back to the 90s,” Ms. Maser said. “Therefore, we are very pleased to make an additional contribution to this very important initiative that allows us to support our partner countries in both the public financial management and the financial sector domain.”

This new contribution adds to the existing US$20 million bilateral support, which will continue to focus on building capacity in the partner countries of Switzerland’s economic development cooperation. The topic areas focus on public finance management, revenue policy and administration, macroeconomic analysis and management, central banking, financial market development, pension systems, and anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism.

SECO also supports the IMF’s multi-donor capacity development initiatives, including four regional technical assistance centers in Africa (East, South, West, and West 2) and three IMF topical trust funds: (i) Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism; (ii) Managing Natural Resource Wealth; and (iii)Tax Policy and Administration.

With signing this agreement, Switzerland, through SECO, brings its contribution to the IMF’s capacity development activities to more than US$70 million.

Useful links:

Factsheet: IMF Technical Assistance: http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/tech.htm

Factsheet: IMF Training Centers: http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/training.htm

Factsheet: Regional Technical Assistance Centers: http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/afritac.htm

Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Center: http://www.pftac.org/

IMF Institute for Capacity Development: http://www.imf.org/external/np/ins/english/about.htm

Press Release: IMF Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism Trust Fund: http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2009/pr09108.htm

Print quality IMF photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/imfphoto