Istanbul to host IMF-World Bank annual meeting

The Annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank will be held in Istanbul on October 6-7. Nearly 13,000 participants, including finance ministers and central bank governors of 185 countries from all over the world, are expected to attend the annual meeting. Kristalina Georgieva, the vice president and corporate secretary of the World Bank, who is currently in Istanbul to attend preparations for the meeting, told reporters yesterday that hundreds of seminars and sessions would be organized as part of the meeting. Georgieva said the IMF, World Bank and Turkey had established a team immediately after the decision to organize the meeting in Istanbul, adding that the team would be responsible for the coordination of activities. She said that Istanbul's amenities and assets, beauty, location and global importance persuaded the World Bank and the IMF to choose the city as the host of their annual meeting. Georgieva said that hosting such a conference would help Istanbul position itself not only as a destination for future international conferences of similar stature, but also as a global financial center. “Istanbul is a vibrant center for finance and investment and is able to host such events,” she said. The annual meeting, considered one of the year's most important international gatherings, will address issues related to the ongoing global financial crisis and attempt to come up with solutions to overcome the problems faced by certain developing and poor countries in the world.