Press Release No. 13/309

Press Release: Fourth Latin American Treasury Forum Seminar in Guatemala Discusses Best Practices in Government Treasury Management

August 12, 2013

The Guatemala Ministry of Public Finance, together with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank, jointly organized the Fourth Latin American Treasury Forum (FOTEGAL) seminar to discuss best practice and ways to improve treasury operations to achieve efficient, transparent, and well-governed systems. The seminar took place in Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala, during August 7–9, 2013. FOTEGAL was created in 2010 and aims at providing a permanent forum for technical discussions and exchange of experiences. The seminar, partially funded by the Government of Japan and part of the IMF’s technical assistance on treasury management to several Latin American countries, brought together treasurers of fifteen countries—Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay. The financial support of the Japanese government has been essential to the IMF’s provision of technical assistance (TA) to FOTEGAL.

The Antigua seminar was opened by the Vice Minister of Public Finance of Guatemala, Ms. María Concepción Castro. She reiterated the forum's usefulness to exchange experiences and discuss practices that can be used to strengthen treasury operations efficiently in line with best international practices. The Ambassador of Japan, Mr. Teruaki Nagasaki, explained how Japan supports the IMF’s TA. Mr. Mario Pessoa, Deputy Division Chief in the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department, highlighted the importance of integrating and coordinating cash and debt management operations and improving coordination with the central bank. Additionally, he emphasized the need to strengthen risk management and fiscal risk reporting. To this end, the IMF team provided presentations on the coordination between cash and debt management, the relationship between the treasury function and accounting, the implementation of an active cash management strategy, the implementation of treasury single accounts, and the result of a survey on treasury operations in the region. Other issues discussed were the treasury legal frameworks, financial risk management, and the management of extra budgetary wealth funds. All country participants presented their specific experiences and discussed ways for developing their treasury systems.

The next FOTEGAL seminar is planned to take place in Uruguay in 2014.