OREANDA-NEWS. April 18, 2016. Australia is joining the Fund as the first external partner of the planned South Asia Regional Training and Technical Assistance Center (SARTTAC), with a financial contribution of AUD2.5 million (US\\$1.9 million). Deputy Secretary of the Australian Treasury Nigel Ray and IMF Deputy Managing Director Carla Grasso signed a respective Letter of Understanding during the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings.

Located in Delhi, India, SARTTAC is expected to become the focal point for planning, coordinating, and implementing the IMF’s capacity development activities in the region on a wide range of areas, including macroeconomic and fiscal management, monetary operations, financial sector regulation and supervision, and macroeconomic statistics. The Center will begin operations in 2017, providing technical assistance and training services to Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

”Australia is pleased to support the IMF's training and capacity development centre in New Delhi. This builds on Australia's longstanding partnership with the IMF and highlights Australia's deepening relations in the South Asian region," said Deputy Secretary of the Australian Treasury Nigel Ray.”

“This agreement is another milestone in advancing the long-standing partnership between Australia and the IMF in capacity development, a partnership which we value and which has helped us strengthen our coordination and effectiveness in capacity building throughout the world, and now more specifically in South Asia,” said IMF Deputy Managing Director Carla Grasso.

Background

SARTTAC will augment the IMF’s global network of regional technical assistance and training centers. Nine regional technical assistance centers in the Pacific, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, and Central America help countries strengthen human and institutional capacity to design and implement policies that promote growth and reduce poverty, supported by regional training centers and programs in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Western Hemisphere. The centers focus on topics that are key to helping countries advance towards the sustainable development goals: domestic resource mobilization, better public spending and investment, financial stability and inclusion, and the improvement and dissemination of macroeconomic statistics as the basis of informed economic policy decision-making.