Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad says Fiji is in the process of issuing a sovereign blue bond and exploring debt-to-nature swaps in the near future.
Speaking at the Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting on this week, on the margins of the 2023 World Bank and IMF Annual Meeting in Marrakech, Morocco, Prof Prasad raised the global risks most countries face, particularly the existential threat of climate change to vulnerable Small States, and called for more urgent actions on the reform of the international financial architecture to address access to finance and debt sustainability issues.
He said there are various proposals for the reform of the financial architecture – Small state has initiated a courageous move – the Bridgetown Initiative – calling for urgent and decisive action to address overlapping crises, and Fiji is rallying behind this initiative.
Commonwealth countries have been encouraged to pursue greater debt transparency.
As part of the preparation for the Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meetings, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji, Ariff Ali, chaired the Commonwealth Central Bank Governors Meeting, while the Permanent Secretary for Finance, Shiri Gounder, chaired the Commonwealth Senior Officials Meeting on Tuesday.
The preparatory meetings expanded on the Commonwealth’s call for the reform of the global financial architecture, and also discussed mobilizing domestic revenue and tackling the high cost of debt.
