Tele-conferencing is a popular medium of communication even with the media most often when the subjects (officials) are overseas. However the local office of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has taken the unusual step of organising a press conference by telephone with the new Resident Representative Dr Koshy Mathai in Colombo tomorrow.
Invitations were sent out on Dr Mathy’s behalf by the Central Bank (CB)’s Communication Department asking any journalist interested to call Dr Mathy at his office (telephone numbers were given) in the Central Bank building between 10 and 10.30 am on Monday. On further clarification, CB officials said this was because IMF officials in Washington would also be taking part in the conference-call, type of press conference.
The CB said the briefing is on the IMF Executive Board’s first review of the IMF-Standby Arrangement (SBA) with Sri Lanka.
Expected to take part from Washington is Brian Aitken, Mission Chief for Sri Lanka of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department, who was involved in a similar conference-call press briefing on July 27. The IMF Resident Representive took up his appointment in Colombo in the second week October and this would be his first, official meeting (over the phone) with the Colombo media.
The IMF has said that it was studying the implications of the Vote-on-Account (temporary budget), presented on Tuesday instead of the 2010 budget, on budgetary targets set by the Sri Lankan government vis-à-vis the IMF SBA.
The second installment of the loan was due late in October but has been delayed owing to an assessment by the fund over the temporary budget issue. The Central Bank says it has met all the targets set out in the programme with the fund.
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