Minister of Finance Dr. Yuval Steinitz opened the IMF constituency conference in Jerusalem which hosted IMF Managing Director Dr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn along with 10 finance ministers and 12 central bank governors from other countries in Israel's IMF constituency.
In his opening remarks before the constituency conference, Dr. Strauss-Kahn favorably referred to Minister Steinitz's initiative to implement a biennial budget.
"The global economic crisis is not yet behind us", said the IMF Managing Director,and added that "in times like this there is room for local initiatives, and what Israel, led by Minister Steinitz, did with the original idea of a biennial budget is exactly the kind of initiatives that are able to improve the economic situation."
Dr. Strauss-Kahn encouraged the implementation of biennial budgeting in other IMF countries as well, and said that "this is an original idea that helps stability and longterm planning. Since a transition to biennial budgets might help economic performance of other countries, we will recommend IMF members to adopt it."
The participants in the constituency conference are:
IMF Managing Director Dr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, from the Netherlands- Mr. Age Bakker, Director at the IMF on behalf of the Constituency, and Mr. Ruud Treffers Director at the World Bank on behalf of the Constituency, the Prime-Minister of Bosnia-Hertzegovina - Dr. Nikola pirić, the Deputy Prime-Minister and Minister of Finance of Croatia- Mr. Ivan uker, the Deputy Prime-Minister and Minister of Finance of Montenegro- Mr. Igor Lukić, the Deputy Prime-Minister of Ukraine- Mr. Sergiy Tigipko, the Minister of Finance of the Netherlands- Mr. Jan Kees de Jager, and the Central Bank Governors of: Armenia – Mr. Artur Javadyan, Bulgaria – Mr. Ivan Iskrov, Cyprus – Mr. Athanasios Orphanides, Georgia – Mr. Archil Mestvirishvili, Moldova – Mr. Dorin Dragutanu, Romania – Mr. Mugur Isărescu.
Participants from Israel included the Finance Minister, Dr. Yuval Steinitz, the Governor of the Bank of Israel, Prof. Stanley Fischer, Deputy Governor, Prof. Tzvi Eckstein, the Banks Supervisor, Mr. Rony Hizkiyahu, and the Capital Market,Insurance and Savings Supervisor, Mr. Oded Sarig.
