Transcript of a Press Briefing by Ms. Caroline Atkinson, Director, External Relations Department, IMF Washington, D.C.
September 24, 2009
Let me start by noting that the Managing Director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and First Deputy Managing Director, John Lipsky, will be attending the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh. Following the summit, many of us and many of you will be going to Istanbul for the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and IMF. The actual formal meetings are officially scheduled , as you know, on October 6 and 7, but many events take place before that, and let me just run through some of those and draw your attention to some of the events that are a little different at least from our side this year with some of the additional events.
In the press events that we are organizing, a number of press conferences, the first one will be on September 30 where we will release Chapter 1, the main chapter, of the Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR) at a press conference with the Financial Counselor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, José Viñals, and his team. The following day, October 1, we will be releasing the first chapters of -- Chapters 1 and 2 -- of the World Economic Outlook (WEO). We have released analytical chapters for both of these publications earlier this week and many of you covered those, but our economic projections will be issued on October 1 with the WEO. We may well have other publications issued that day on aspects of our surveillance with the G-20.
One particular event to draw your attention to on October 1: the Managing Director will be visiting Bilgi University in Istanbul to meet with students, especially students of economics. We have sent out a media advisory on this event. We will be arranging transportation from the Press Center, but you do need to sign up, especially for that event, and we will be taking journalists on a first-come, first-served basis.
The following day the Managing Director will have his usual opening press conference, at 11:00 a.m. to preview the issues that he expects to come up during the annual meetings. And Mr. Lipsky will also take part in that press briefing.
Later that day there is another special event, if you like. The Managing Director will give the keynote address at a conference being organized by the Central Bank of Turkey, and press will be required to register for that event also. We have put out a media advisory, and we will provide transportation from the Press Center for that. He is expected to speak about how things look a year after the crisis.
On October 2, we will open the Program of seminars, There are some very interesting seminars, which will be open to the press. The first, the opening plenary, will be broadcast live as part of the BBC World Debate Series will include the Managing Director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and also Jim O’Neill from Goldman Sachs, Niall Ferguson from Harvard, and Güler Sabancia prominent Turkish businesswoman, and will be moderated by the BBC’s Nick Gowing.
There will be other seminars during the period of time that will feature people such as George Soros, Anne Fisher, talking about the crisis and its implications, also sections on fiscal policy and on the regional developments.
On October 3 we will launch our regional Economic Outlook reports on Africa and Europe, and other senior Fund officials will be briefing that day on their regions, Central Asia, the Asia Pacific, North and South America.
On October 4 there will be a communiqué published after the IMFC meeting and the Managing Director and the Chair of the IMFC, Mr. Boutros-Ghali, and Mr. Lipsky will hold a press briefing to recap the outcomes of the IMFC. That will be sometime probably in the afternoon of October 4.
On October 5 is when the Development Committee meets, and on October 6, the Annual Meetings formally open and the Managing Director will deliver a speech. For all of these speeches we will try to get you copies in advance. And on October 7, he will make closing remarks at the annual meetings.
http://www.imf.org/external/np/tr/2009/tr092409.htm
