Paula Lugones
03/03/2020 - 15:46
- Clarín.com
- Economy
Before the advance of the coronavirus, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank decided on Tuesday to suspend the mass trip of officials to Washington to participate in the global assembly that takes place every year in April and will now be in “virtual” format.
The Fund confirmed on Tuesday that, given the escalation of the global epidemic and the increase in cases in the United States, the meeting of Economy Ministers and Central Bank chiefs from 180 countries will not be in person but through some virtual mechanism . The assembly, they clarify, will not be canceled.
The meeting was scheduled between April 17 and 19 . The trip of officials from all over the planet, plus their advisors, businessmen and hundreds of journalists who usually accredit themselves, would have been a very great risk in the face of the virus. This type of assembly usually brings together about 10,000 people in Washington in just two blocks, where the IMF and WB buildings are.
"Delegates will not go to the Assembly in person, with the possible exception of a small number of delegates," the Fund said in a statement, and will meet "remotely."
This meeting is especially important for Argentina this year , since our country is in the process of debt renegotiation. In this capital, Minister Martín Guzmán would not only meet with the IMF authorities but with his peers around the world and especially those of the G20, who he needs to ask for his support for a debt solution.
In addition, in meetings that are usually organized in parallel to the Assembly by the main banks, hundreds of businessmen and investment funds come to listen to the forecasts of the countries. Argentina usually causes great interest, and even more at this stage.
As the cases continued to grow globally, the agencies began to study different alternatives: from reducing the size of the delegations, canceling external events or doing so in “virtual” format, that is to say with meetings through teleconferences. Obviously, this last alternative prevailed.
This change is very unusual. After the attack of September 11, 2001, the Fund and the WB canceled their annual meeting scheduled for that month and then did so in November of that year in Ottawa, Canada. Now, it will be done, but virtual.