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TEXT-Letter to G20 delegates from UK's Darling

Tue Nov 3, 2009 10:01am EST

LONDON, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Finance ministers and central bank governors from the G20 group of industrial and emerging market countries meet in the Scottish town of St Andrews on Nov 6-7.

Below is a letter from British finance minister Alistair Darling addressed to the G20 delegates, setting out the schedule for the weekend.

For more stories on the G20 meeting, click: [ID:nLQ516726]

Dear Colleague,

We are meeting next week: I look forward to seeing you.

This must be a working weekend, concentrating on the issues rather than the communique! I would like our discussions to focus on the following:

Friday evening

- International Financial Institutions (IFIs) - We have made significant progress, but we now need to ensure that the IFIs can fulfil their role in strengthening the financial system and restoring growth. We should focus on the role of they have in supporting the Framework, addressing the challenges of climate change and combating macroeconomic shocks.

Saturday

- Options for climate change financing - We should discuss a range of possible options for climate change finance in advance of Copenhagen, as an input into the UNFCCC. There are difficult and sensitive issues here, concerning the scale, sources and uses of public and private financing, which we should cover in-depth. But we should be able to make some substantive progress on governance and institutional arrangements where there are signs of convergence, as well as building on our Friday evening discussion on the role of the IFIs.

- Launching the Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth - As the process of recovery continues it is vital that we cooperate more effectively in managing the world economy, recognising that our economies are highly interdependent. Following the Pittsburgh summit we must therefore initiate a cooperative process of mutual assessment of our policy frameworks, by reaffirming our common objectives for the assessment process, agreeing country inputs, (which will be central to the process), and determining how the IFIs can support the implementation of the framework. On exit strategies, I hope that we can agree a set of principles to manage the withdrawal from support in a cooperative and coordinated way

- Strengthening financial regulation and supervision - We must maintain momentum on this agenda. Following the substantial progress made throughout the year, we must press forward, with the FSB, to meet the agreed deadlines.

Finally, Finance Ministers Yoon and Flaherty will set out their plans for the G20 work programme in 2010.

We will circulate UK key issues papers for the meeting in the course of the next week, which will take stock of progress already made, and set out where further action is required. Deputies will cover these issues in full in their preparatory meeting, but I hope our discussion can focus on the specific issues set out above.

I am sending this letter to the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of all countries and the heads of the institutions participating in the meeting.

ALISTAIR DARLING



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