KUWAIT CITY, Oct 15: As part of a series of meetings during his participation in the annual meetings of the international financial institutions of the Board of Governors of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund in Marrakesh, Minister of Finance Fahd Al-Jarallah met with the Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the IMF, Dr. Jihad Azour, and discussed ways to enhance cooperation between Kuwait and the IMF in a number of projects included in the government’s work program, reports Al-Rai daily.

The Minister then thanked the Fund’s mission regarding consultations to review Article 4 on financial and economic reforms.

The meeting was attended by the Director of the Public Debt Department at the Ministry of Finance, Abdulaziz Al-Mulla, and the Director of the Macroeconomic and Fiscal Policy Department, Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Osaimi.

On the other hand, Al-Jarallah received the Vice President of the World Bank Group for Middle East and North Africa Affairs, Farid Belhaj, during which Al-Jarallah stressed on the historical relationship between Kuwait and the World Bank, and the possibility of developing and improving it through the local office of the World Bank in Kuwait, providing consultations to local authorities, especially the programs included in Kuwait Vision 2035.

Al-Jarallah also met with the Secretary-General and Minister of Finance of the Sultanate of Oman, Nasser bin Khamis Al-Jashmi, where the two parties discussed the latest economic and financial developments within the framework of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The Minister of Finance also discussed, in a meeting with the Minister of Planning and International Cooperation of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Zeina Touqan, ways of cooperation between Kuwait and Jordan to enhance the role of the Office of the Executive Director of the World Bank in serving its member states, which includes 11 Arab countries.