News Brief No. 01/40

News Brief: IMF and Brazil Establish a Joint Regional Training Center

April 27, 2001

The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Horst Köhler, and the Minister of Finance of Brazil, Pedro Sampaio Malan, signed today a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a Joint Regional Training Center for Latin America (BTC).

The BTC, located in Brasilia at the Escola de Administração Fazendária, the Finance Ministry's Training Center, will be inaugurated in May 2001 under an initial three-year renewable agreement. Training events at the BTC are targeted at Latin American government officials who are involved in formulating and implementing macroeconomic and financial policies. Courses and seminars at the BTC will cover such topics as macroeconomic adjustment policies and financial programming, public finance, trade and exchange rate policies, financial sector issues, and statistics. The BTC will also host high-level seminars on topical issues.

This new training center will serve an important role in building capacity in Latin America, thereby contributing to improve economic decision-making and policy implementation in the countries of the region.