The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) signed today in Washington a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to enhance cooperation to respond more effectively to the needs of their common membership. The MOU was signed on Sunday by Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director, and Abdulrahman Al Hamidy, Director General and Chairman of the AMF. "This agreement will strengthen our partnership with the Arab Monetary Fund and allow us to tap into its vast expertise in the issues facing the region. It also illustrates our strong commitment to step up our engagement with the region in terms of policy advice and capacity development," Lagarde said after the signing ceremony. The AMF and the IMF share common objectives of maintaining macroeconomic and financial stability, and accelerating broad-based and inclusive economic growth and job creation in the Arab region, in addition to strengthening capacity building. "Supporting capacity development in our member countries has always been among our top priorities," Al Hamidy said. "Our long and well established cooperation with the IMF has always been successful and we are glad that today it's being reinforced and strengthened to better serve the needs of our common member countries." Under the MOU, the AMF and the IMF will continue to provide training opportunities to Arab officials, support the development of domestic capital markets in the Arab countries, and strengthen their collaboration on the Arabstat initiative, which aims at the development of efficient statistical systems in the region. The two parties also intend to carry out joint analytical work to inform Arab finance ministers and central bank governors, and to organize high level events on topics of mutual interests and priority for the region.
