By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Global lender, the International Monetary Institution (IMF) said on Friday it has signed an agreement with China’s Ministry of Finance on capacity development and strengthening fiscal institutions.
The IMF says this is a new initiative it launched this week which marks an important milestone in the area of technical cooperation and training between it and the Chinese Ministry of Finance in support of a comprehensive package of reforms.
According to the global financial institution, these reforms, outlined by the Chinese authorities in 2013, aim at fundamentally modernising Chinese fiscal institutions.
Christine Lagarde, IMF’s managing director (MD), and Lou Jiwei, China’s Finance Minister signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on March 23 during Lagarde’s recent visit to that country, to intensify the ongoing IMF support for China’s fiscal reforms.
According to the Fund, the three-year (3) agreement plans to increase cooperation to help strengthen China’s fiscal institutions and capacity in a number of areas, including in developing a medium-term expenditure framework, modernising government accounting, strengthening local government finance, designing tax policy reforms, and identifying options for pension and health care reforms.
