NEWSLETTER. Debt Management Section. Debt Crisis dominates the Commonwealth Secretariat Second Stakeholders Conference on Debt Management

Transcription

1 C o m m o n w e a l t h S e c r e t a r i a t Debt Management Section June 2011 NEWSLETTER Debt Crisis dominates the Commonwealth Secretariat Second Stakeholders Conference on Debt Management The Commonwealth Secretariat held its second Stakeholders Conference on Debt Management at the London Headquarters during 31 March 1 April The theme of this year s Conference was Building Resilience in Debt Management - Preserving Debt Sustainability and Financial Stability. The conference was convened at a time when the global economic crisis which unfolded in 2009, was deepening with the evolving Eurozone debt crisis. The main objective of the conference was to understand the implications of the Eurozone debt crisis on developing economies and lessons learnt for future economic management. Over 100 delegates from 41 countries participated at the event, and discussed challenges and priorities for countries in managing their debt in order to ensure debt s u s t a i n a b i l i t y s a f e g u a r d stability. a n d f i n a n c i a l Participants included a diverse profile of finance ministers; central bank governors financial secretaries; debt m a n a g e r s ; representatives from international organisations including the Bank for International Settlements, International Monetary Fund, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, World Bank and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; leading academics; financial market financial analysts; market participants; other professionals and debt management experts. Two non-commonwealth countries Italy and Turkey also sent representatives. During his inaugural address, Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma said: Debt takes funds away from where they are The Commonwealth Secretary-General; the Ministers of Finance from Jamaica and Malawi; and the Deputy Minister of Finance from South Africa (left to right) at the Commonwealth Secretariat Stakeholders Conference in London, United Kingdom most needed health, education, the environment the real priorities. We have already loosened the chains of debt: now, we need to keep using the same combination of brain and brawn in our global efforts to shake them off, once and for all. The conference included Ministerial addresses which provided country perspectives on wide ranging issues related to public debt management. Hon ble Ken Kandoo, Minister of Finance, Malawi spoke on challenges for financing growth while ensuring debt sustainability. Hon ble Audley Shaw, Minister of Finance and Public Services, Jamaica gleaned from Jamaica s most recent debt restructuring experience while speaking on the subject of dealing with debt problems by a market access country. An emerging market perspective was provided by Hon ble Nhlanhla Musa Nene, Deputy Minister of Finance, Republic of South Africa while speaking on the priorities for public debt management in the twenty first century. (Continued on page 2) Our key objective is to promote prudent debt management practices in member countries. We do so by providing advisory support in developing sound debt management policies, strategies and operations in line with best practice, backed up by state-of-the-art software Inside: THE LESOTHO PUBLIC DEBT INITIATIVE COMSEC PARTNERS WITH SOUTH AFRICAN TREASURY ON PDM COMSEC LAUNCHES E-LEARNING PROGRAM WORKSHOP ON SUB-NATIONAL DEBT MANAGEMENT IN INDIAN STATES MALAWI TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE ON CONSOLIDATED DEBT MANAGEMENT ESTABLISHMENT OF AN INTEGRATED PUBLIC DEBT DATABASE IN SRI LANKA WORLD BANK DEBT MANAGEMENT FACILITY STAKEHOLDERS CONFERENCE IFMIS REVIEW AND INTERFACING DOMESTIC DEBT DATA IN BOTSWANA REVITALIZING THE USE OF CS-DRMS IN CAMEROON ASIAN REGIONAL WORKSHOP ON DEVELOPING DEBT BULLETING REVITALIZING THE USE OF CS-DRMS IN GUYANA CROWN AGENTS WORKSHOP ON DEBT MANAGEMENT AND DEBT SYSTEMS PLANNED ACTIVITIES 12 2 DEBT MANAGEMENT NEWS 3 The Debt Management Section (DMS) is an arm of the Special Advisory Services Division

2 (Continued from page 1) The other highlights of the conference were key note speeches by internationally acclaimed experts on issues related to the current debt crisis. Eminent economists like Willem Buiter, Chief Economist in Citibank spoke on the effectiveness of fiscal rules for debt sustainability while Professor Charles Goodhart, Chair of the Financial Markets Group in London Schools of Economics dwelled on the way forward for managing financial stability and financial risks. Delivering a special address, Dr. Y V Reddy, former Governor, Reserve Bank of India provided his outlook on how the emerging market economies and the international financial architecture should address challenges on public debt management. A high level panel discussion comprising Sir K Dwight Venner, Governor, Eastern Caribbean Central Bank; Prof. Njuguna Ndung u, Governor, Central Bank of Kenya; H R Khan, Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India; Ali Mansoor, Financial Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Mauritius; Dr. Abraham Nwanko, Director General, Debt Management Office, Nigeria and Coskun Cangoz, Director General, Undersecretariat of Turkey deliberated to provide a practical perspective of the various issues Dr. Y V Reddy, former Governor, Reserve Bank of India making a point at the stakeholder s Conference, London, April 2011 germane to the central theme of the conference. During the conference, delegates from various internal agencies, country authorities, market analysts and international experts spoke on a number of issues which included Issues and Outlook on Preserving Debt Sustainability, Managing Debt Vulnerabilities and Safeguarding Financial Stability, Managing Public Debt under Global Economic Crisis and Financial Market Uncertainty, Responding to Global Financial Crisis through Better Information on Debt Management and Strengthening Debt Management Capacity in Countries. The next Debt Management Conference will be held in The Lesotho Public Debt Bulletin Initiative In April 2011, the Commonwealth Secretariat collaborated with the Public Debt Management Division, Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, in the Kingdom of Lesotho to prepare a Public Debt Bulletin in line with international best practice. In addition to the Public Debt Bulletin initiative, the Secretariat also worked with the Ministry of Finance in building capacity in debt reporting using CS-DRMS. The mission was undertaken by Walton Gilpin and Sanjay Kumar, both Advisers from the Secretariat. In order to facilitate the process of developing the bulletin, the ComSec carried out the following: - (i) presented the Debt Bulletin Template developed by the Secretariat to the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning in order to agree on the layout of Public Debt Bulletin, (ii) assisted officials generate data from CS-DRMS for use in developing the Public Debt Bulletin, (iii) collated public debt data taking into consideration other data not maintained in CS-DRMS, (iv) worked with country economists, central bankers and debt managers to produce accurate and validated debt statistics and (v) organised training for debt management staff in calculating basic risk indicators. other categories of debt were maintained in excel. This made it difficult to arrive at the consolidated figure for Public Debt. Data from CS-DRMS had to be exported to excel and merged with data from other sources. The authorities agreed that the Public Debt Bulletin was to be comprehensive and cover major developments over the past five years, reflecting debt flows, stocks, institutional and legal arrangements, risk analysis and future plans for improving debt management. The comprehensiveness of the debt bulletin template served this purpose and was therefore used as the template for Lesotho s annual public debt bulletin. It is expected that as a result of this intervention, Lesotho will shortly publish its public debt bulletin. Earlier, the Secretariat assisted Dominica, Seychelles and Sierra Leone following which Sierra Leone has already published a debt bulletin and placed it in public domain. The data compilation process for developing the bulletin was not straight forward as data on External Debt was captured in CS-DRMS and information on Page 2

3 Debt Management News Market confidence in global economy recovery continues to decline. As a result flight to safe haven assets have pushed bond yields particularly those in advanced economies down. In contrast strong growth in emerging markets continues to put pressure on commodity prices (see charts below). News from the Commonwealth Ghana: managed to raise one third of planned amount in its 3 year bond auction in June (216m cedi were accepted against offer of 300m cedi). The average yield at 13% was 60bps above the last auction of 3year bond in April (which was also oversubscribed). Market participants attributed the weak demand to the rise in threats, such as food prices, to the economy. Nigeria: saw its yield on its Eurobond fall as markets were reassured by rise in the oil price mitigating their fears about election result. South Africa: OECD and South Africa announced the opening of a training centre (located in South Africa) that plans to assist African governments in developing sound practices of public debt and cash management and strengthen the securities market. Sri Lanka: given the recent steady economic growth the country is experiencing the central bank is considering the issuance of US$1bn sovereign bond; it plans to use the proceeds to pay off existing debt and finance infrastructure projects. Other developing and emerging countries China: China Asset Management Company launched bond index fund denominated in Yuan in April; the fund would invest in Yuan denominated bonds, money market, cash and cash equivalent instruments. The fund is to be managed passively and its performance will be measured by the iboxx ABF China Index compiled and published by the Markit Indices Limited. Mexico: sold through reopening a 2008 issuance of 30 year bond maturing in 2040 a record US$1bn bond. The yield at 5.95% was 135 basis points over the US Treasuries; the bid offer was 1.4 (with demand outstripping supply) with diverse pool of investors (US, Asia, Europe, and Mexico). Philippines: is considering debt swap in order to lengthen the average maturity of its debt portfolio, by offering 10 year and 20 year maturity bonds for shorter dated securities. Turkey: is set to pay off its debt to the IMF by South Korea: following its Indian rupee denominated government bond index in March, Nomura launched a similar index in South Korea denominated in Korean won. Page 3

4 Commonwealth Secretariat partners with South African National Treasury to Support Member Countries in Public Debt Management On the sidelines of the Debt Management Conference held in London on 31 March 2011, the Commonwealth Secretariat announced a new initiative wherein the South African National Treasury and the Secretariat will work together to enhance the Commonwealth s debt management work in member countries. South Africa is one of the emerging market economies in the world to adopt a prudent public financial policy in the early 1990s and also considerably strengthened public debt management operations within a strategic framework. With the establishment of a public debt management office embedded within a sovereign asset and liability management institutional framework, the National Treasury of the Republic of South Africa is considered to be a centre of excellence in public financial management, including sovereign debt management. Harnessed by a dedicated debt management strategy and with special emphasis on the structural, legal and infrastructural aspects, South Africa s government bond market is considered to be one of the most developed bond market within the emerging market economies and matches closely to many developed markets in advanced economies. Given the rich expertise on sovereign debt management that resides in the National Treasury, this strategic alliance between the two agencies will aim to realise the synergy for assisting Commonwealth member countries through transfer of skills and knowledge. As part of the National Treasury/ Secretariat collaboration, the two partners will work together on advisory and technical support on debt management for officials from the Commonwealth s member states; selective attachments of debt managers in the Treasury; organising pan-commonwealth and regional debt management workshops and South African Deputy Minister of Finance at the Stakeholders Conference, London, April 2011 conferences; and gathering information on the best practices for sovereign debt management. In addition, the Treasury will also host two regional advisers for the African region as part of a global project of the Secretariat to deepen assistance on debt management through the global placement of regional advisers. Speaking about the partnership at the Commonwealth Secretariat headquarters in London, the Deputy Minister of Finance for South Africa, Hon ble Nhlanhla Musa Nene, said: It is in sharing experiences that we would be better placed to be able to deal with debt. The lessons we have learned and the lessons other countries and member states have learned - we re quite prepared to incorporate those into our process. Failure to manage debt for any country deprives the government of the fiscal space to be able to fulfil its mandate on the basic needs of the public. Through this collaborative process, countries will improve their decisions making processes for debt and risk management; market development; and policy formulation. It is anticipated that the collaboration between the two organisations will include the placement of a Debt Expert from the South Africa National Treasury in the office of the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, United Kingdom. Speaking about this partnership, Arindam Roy, Head of Debt Management Section in the Secretariat observed We have partnered in recent times to leverage the expert resources of National Treasury for assisting our member co u ntr ie s o n sover eign deb t management. This formal partnership between the two agencies will pave the way for a durable framework of assistance to many of our member countries and will be a good example of South-South collaboration. Mr Lungisa Fuzile, Director General of the National Treasury, Republic of South Africa Mr Arindam Roy, Adviser and Head, Debt Management Section, Commonwealth Secretariat (left) and Mr Johan Redenlinghuys of the National Treasury, Republic of South Africa (right) The National Treasury will also benefit from the Secretariat s new Public Debt Management Analytical Tool (PDAT), due to be released in 2012 which is a decision support tool to facilitate the design and implementation of debt management strategy. The National Treasury will furthermore benefit from assistance through the use of CS- DRMS system to compile debt liabilities for the public sector enterprises. Page 4

5 ComSec launches an elearning Programme on Debt Management Commonwealth Secretariat launches e-learning programme to help member states manage debt The Commonwealth Secretariat by leveraging the power of technology has launched an e-learning programme to intensify its efforts to help officials manage sovereign debt. The formal launch of the e-learning programme on debt management took place at the end of the Secretariat s second biennial Stakeholders Conference on Debt Management at its headquarters in London on 1 April This maiden e-learning project allows debt officials to complete online courses on debt management and the use of the Commonwealth Secretariat Debt Recording and Management System, (CS-DRMS). This project was developed in close collaboration with the Commonwealth of Learning, (CoL) in Vancouver, Canada. The e-learning programme will gradually be widened to cover other aspects of debt management through courses in CS-DRMS and also analytical aspects of debt management. Delegates during the launching of the Commonwealth Secretariat s elearning Program on Debt Management, London, April 2011 While formally launching the programme, the Director of the Special Advisory Services Division at the Secretariat, José Maurel, said: This is an important component of the debt management programme as our focus is always on the transfer of skills to debt officials in Commonwealth countries so they can effectively and sustainably manage their country s debt. Since the inception of CS-DRMS over 25 years ago, the Secretariat has provided regular face-to-face training, workshops and seminars on debt management, but with the launch of the e-learning project it hopes to eventually have a full range of online tools and courses available to enhance the capacity in debt management. Management Adviser in the Secretariat, noted that the single biggest advantage of this online course is that it will transform traditional face-to-face training workshops into a virtual learning experience that is learner centric and can happen anytime and anywhere 24 hours a day. The Secretariat brought together 24 star learners from 21 countries to attend the first face-2-face advanced CS-DRMS training for elearners in London. The workshop, which covered advanced features of CS-DRMS, and Debt Management Concepts was held from May 9-13, 2011 in London. Facilitators were drawn from the Commonwealth of Learning and Commonwealth Secretariat. E-Learning training workshop Under the elearning training scheme, 75 debt management professionals from 29 countries were trained with 88 per cent of learners successfully completing the course. Noting the high completion rate of the maiden programme, Angela Kwan, Learning Manager, Commonwealth of Learning, hailed the project as a success which the CoL is very proud to be associated with. At the end of the elearning course, the Commonwealth Secretariat organised an advanced training for elearning participants on using CS-DRMS for External Debt Management. Walton Gilpin, Project Manager and Debt Page 5

6 Three States in India Develop a Comprehensive Sub-National Debt Database using CS-DRMS Sub-national debt management is considered to be an integral part of public financial management of a country. The increasing trend of emphasis on a wider general government debt management framework stems from the systemic risk that large scale unsustainable debt of the sub-nationals can pose a threat to the fiscal sustainability of the central government. This can also impair the financial stability of a country. With growing fiscal decentralisation, debt of the sub-national entities like states and local governments has increased significantly in the last decade. However, for many sub-nationals, the basic foundation of having in place a robust debt database in a computerised system is not in place which greatly impedes prudent management of such liabilities. Workshop on sub-national debt database using CS-DRMS in Indian States being held in the Finance Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh in Hyderabad In recent years, the Commonwealth Secretariat has been assisting few states in India on a pilot basis to strengthen sub-national debt management by establishing a robust debt database in CS-DRMS. This work has been supported by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India which has recently accorded increasing priority on strengthening sub-national debt management within the country as part of putting sub-national finance on a sound footing. Along with India, the Secretariat in partnership with the UK based Crown Agents is assisting the provincial governments in Nigeria to develop its sub-national debt database in CS-DRMS. As part of ongoing assistance to India, a DMS mission visited three states viz., Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, during May 2011, to review the work being done by them towards creation of the debt database in CSDRMS. These states have made extremely good progress with all the domestic liabilities already captured in the software. The only major liabilities remaining to be captured were the back-to-back loans received from the Central Government towards External Aided Projects provided by multilateral and bilateral creditors. To this end, the Secretariat co-ordinated with the office of the Controller of Aid Accounts and Audit, MoF, New Delhi, to provide assistance to these states in recording of these external liabilities, which was completed in June Following such assistance to the states through this project, three states in India; viz., Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra have now established a comprehensive database in the CS-DRMS on their debt liabilities. Another state, Madhya Pradesh is also at an advanced stage of completing its database. With this achievement, these states will now be in a position to administer their debt operations more effectively, efficiently and swiftly. It will also be able to leverage the database to undertake wider analysis of the debt portfolio for its future management. With this achievement, India will be the first emerging market country to establish its sub-national debt database in a computerised manner. In order to ensure that debt database is durable, effectively utilized and locally supported, there was a clear need for training of state debt officials in advanced use of CSDRMS. Accordingly, the Secretariat in partnership with the Government of Andhra Pradesh organised a workshop during 27 June to 1 July 2011 at Hyderabad, India, which attracted 15 officials from the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. The workshop was inaugurated by the Finance Secretary, Mrs. Pushpa Subrahmanyam who stressed upon the need for the states to assume more active role in the debt management. She observed that the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Acts (FRBM) enacted by individual states have put greater responsibilities on the state governments to efficiently manage their debt portfolio. She welcomed the timely intervention from the Secretariat in assisting the state debt officials in understanding the intricacies of debt management and providing tool for debt analysis and reporting. The main focus of the workshop was on recording of complex debt instruments, debt reporting and portfolio analysis. While more training will be provided on the use of CS-DRMS for maintaining good debt data quality and reporting purpose in the future, the workshop highlighted the need for providing tailor made reports of their debt position and cash flows to meet their reporting and operational needs. At the same time, the interfacing of CS-DRMS with the Government Financial Management and Information Systems (GFMIS) being developed by individual states also emerged as a priority. Once the capacity to manage and utilise the CS-DRMS for compilation and reporting of debt liabilities is enhanced in these states and gets stabilised, the next round of assistance will be focussed on analytical aspects of debt management to support policy formulation. Page 6

7 Malawi Government receives consolidated debt management technical assistance In January 2011, the Malawi government approved the debt management reform and capacity building plan formulated with the assistance of the World Bank and the IMF. The reform plan, among other issues identified key areas where institutional and capacity deficits contribute to less-than fully effective debt management, and therefore requiring possible reforms or capacity building efforts. The reform plan followed the successful completion of the World Bank led Debt Management Performance Assessment (DeMPA) exercise in Malawi. Following the adoption of the reform plan, the Government of Malawi, through the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Hon ble Ken Kandodo requested the Commonwealth Secretariat to discuss and identify areas that Malawi could benefit from its technical assistance programme. In response to this request, a mission from the Secretariat visited Malawi in June Following review of the current assistance being provided by other providers of technical assistance on debt management and the existing need on implementing the debt management reform plan, the Secretariat agreed to provide a comprehensive package of technical assistance to Malawi in the following areas: - Create a comprehensive public debt database for Malawi in CS-DRMS through establishing an electronic transfer of securities data from the Central Bank to the Ministry of Finance; Enhance the Public Debt Bulletin/Statistical Reports that are produced by the Ministry of Finance; F o r m u l a t e t h e L e g a l Framework on Public Debt Management through drafting of a Public Debt Act; Propose reforms for developing the Domestic Debt Market S t r e n g t h e n i n g C a s h Management; Develop Private Sector External Debt Database in CS-DRMS; Reform arrangements for streamlining information flows on public debt management to facilitate Interfacing of CS- DRMS, IFMIS and the aid management system; Provide training on CS-DRMS a n d d e b t m a n a g e m e n t concepts for Accountant General and Auditor General Staff; and Training on Debt Strategy A n a l y s i s a n d i t s Implementation Malawian Minister of Finance A work plan over the next three years outlining the identified t e c h n i c a l a s s i s t a n c e w a s subsequently agreed that will benefit two institutions namely: Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP); and the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM). The work plan was structured and sequenced based on the priorities of the Government so that progression in one area will lead to the eligibility for assistance in another area. This will ensure that the Secretariat s assistance is translated into an actionable programme which can be monitored to assess the impact of this intervention. Establishing Integrated Public Debt Database through Interfacing Domestic Debt Data with CS-DRMS in Sri Lanka DMS launched a review mission to Sri Lanka during 9-11 May The main area of focus was domestic debt management as Central Bank of Sri Lanka wants to maintain the domestic debt portfolio in CS-DRMS so as to have a comprehensive public debt database. Development of an integrated debt database in CS-DRMS would not only equip the debt managers in Sri Lanka to undertake easy reporting and monitoring of the debt liabilities for public debt operations but would also facilitate undertaking comprehensive analysis of the debt portfolio for supporting policy decisions. Sri Lanka has some specific instrument types as well as conventions for issuance of government securities in departure to standard practices which could not be handled within the current CSDRMS module. These have been taken note of and being incorporated in the next version of the software to meet their requirements. With the provision of customised reports, Sri Lanka will now be able to use the public debt database in CS-DRMS for a wide range of debt Central Bank of Sri Lanka Page 7

8 World Bank Debt Management Facility Stakeholders Conference Focuses on Current Challenges in Debt Management The Debt Management Facility for Low-Income Countries launched in 2008 by the World Bank through a multi-donor trust fund is aimed at strengthening debt management capacity and institutions for IDA-eligible countries. Against the backdrop of the current global economic crisis, this year s conference was themed on Managing Debt: Lessons Learnt and Emerging Issues and held at Berne, Switzerland during 8-9 June 2011 in partnership with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs. As an implementing partner of the DMF, the Commonwealth Secretariat attended the conference and was represented by Miriam Tamene, Adviser in Debt Management Section. The World Bank holds annual forums on the Debt Management Facility (DMF) programme. Interfacing Domestic Debt Data and IFMIS with CS-DRMS in Botswana As a result of a Commonwealth Secretariat assessment mission undertaken in September 2010 to the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MoFDP), Botswana, a recommendation was made to integrate the CS-DRMS system with the government s in-house Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) known as Government Accounting and Budgetary System (GABS). To assist the MoFDP in implementing this recommendation, a follow up mission was carried out in May 2011 to review the procedures currently in place for administering and accounting of debt servicing activities and the database used for such functions. The main purpose of the mission was to determine the interfacing requirements for communication between the CS-DRMS suite and the Government of Botswana' Integrated Financial Management System (GABS). formation between various departments involved in the debt servicing and other related debt transactions to ensure consistency in accounting and reporting of debt stocks and flows. As such it is necessary for new procedures to be put in place for the flow of information between the various parties involved in the debt servicing. This will provide a consistent flow of information through the departments and thus ensure the consistency of data within the systems. Once this information flow is streamlined and bedded down, the integration exercise between the CS-DRMS and the GABS could be implemented including automation of some information flows, specifically between CS-DRMS and the PDSU module in GABS. The Public Debt Service Unit (PDSU) in the MoFDP is responsible for making the Debt Service payments through the Bank Of Botswana. The PDSU relies on a customised information system (PDSU) module that resides on the periphery of the GABS which connects into the Accounts Payable section of GABS for making the payments. On the other hand, the Cash Flow Unit (CFU) within MoFDP is responsible for maintaining the Debt system CS-DRMS 2000+, which is used to record the loan details, forecast transactions, and actual payments. The ComSec mission highlighted a key and common issue facing a lot of governments when it comes to integrating IFMIS with CS-DRMS This has to do with the operational procedures in place pertaining to the flow of in- A view of the Botswana s Ministry of Finance and Development Planning Page 8

9 Revitalising the use of CS-DRMS in Cameroon Opening ceremony at the Workshop on external Debt Management Using CS-DRMS In 2010, the Debt Management Section (DMS) from the Commonwealth Secretariat fielded a mission to Cameroon to review the status of the debt management and CS -DRMS project. The mission observed that the use of CS-DRMS in Cameroon was suboptimal due to inadequate local capacity. As a result of this mission, a number of recommendations were made to revitalise the use of CS-DRMS for effective debt management. Due to the broad range of areas where assistance was required by Cameroon, it was agreed with the country officials to adopt a phased approach to progressively address the requirements with an overall objective to develop a comprehensive public debt database using CS-DRMS. For this purpose, a two-pronged strategy was recommended: (i) enhance the external debt data quality in CS-DRMS, and (ii) build domestic debt database in CS-DRMS by interfacing with the central bank depository system. attended by 27 participants. During his opening address, the Director General emphasised the importance of the workshop and the need for CAA to fully embrace CS-DRMS for building a reliable debt database for reporting and decision making. The workshop which was designed to be very hands-on covered a mix of basic as well as advanced functions to meet the practical training needs of new CAA staff as well as officials already fairly conversant with the system. The focus was on the recording of various types of instruments (standard, multit r a n c h e / m u l t i - c u r r e n c y, restructured, short term debt instruments) and transactions and the reporting module in the system. The training was facilitated by Sanjay Lollbeharree, A l a i n F o f e h f r o m t h e Commonwealth Secretariat and Anna Kone (CS-DRMS consultant from Mali). In giving his closing remarks, the Director General noted the success of the training and expressed his thanks to the Secretariat for its continued support to the Government of Cameroon in its efforts to establish sustainable debt management. Following this intervention, the Commonwealth team held discussions with relevant sections of the CAA on the implementation of other modules of CS-DRMS such as the domestic debt module, the on-lending module and the disbursement and project module. The mission also discussed with CAA management the possibility of streamlining the institutional arrangements by setting up a dedicated unit/team for data entry in CS-DRMS to assist officers in charge of varied portfolio and ensure timeliness and comprehensiveness of the debt records. CAA was also advised to develop a manual for documenting debt management procedures and assigning responsible parties for recording/reporting using CS-DRMS. The Secretariat will continue to work closely with the CAA to develop a comprehensive public debt database in CSDRMS. This will help CAA to graduate to the next level where it can then benefit from other services offered by the Secretariat with regard to debt analysis, publication of debt bulletin, etc using the CS-DRMS integrated database as the foundation blocks. Workshop on external Debt Management Using CS-DRMS in Cameroon held at the Djeuga Hotel, Yaoundé, June 2011 One major recommendation for maintaining good quality database and activate the use of CS-DRMS was to provide CS-DRMS training to enhance debt managers skills for the effective utilisation of the debt recording system to better support debt management operations and decision making in Cameroon. Accordingly, a training workshop on the External Debt module of CS-DRMS was organised by the Secretariat in Yaoundé in June The workshop was opened by Mr Dieudonne EVOU MEKOU, Director General of the Debt Management Office (Caisse Autonome d Amortissmeent [CAA]) and Page 9

10 Joint COMSEC IMF Asian Regional Workshop on Developing a comprehensive Public Debt Bulletin, Singapore In light of the growing need for countries to regularly review and analyze public debt portfolios, the Commonwealth Secretariat has been organising regional and in-country capacity building workshops to assist member countries develop comprehensive annual Public Debt Reports/Bulletins. To this end, the Secretariat in collaboration with the IMF, organised an Asian Regional Workshop on Developing a Public Debt Bulletin in Singapore in June The workshop was the third in the series of regional workshops on developing Annual Public Debt Bulletins using CS-DRMS. Building on a recent template developed by the Secretariat to report on public debt portfolio and debt management operations, much of which can be readily accessed through standard reports made available Delegates at the Asian Regional Workshop on Developing a Public Debt Bulletin within CS-DRMS, the Secretariat is now actively promoting the development of public debt bulletin by emerging from updates to Balance of Payment Manual 6 countries. This work complements the recent initiatives of the and the SNA These presentations provided the IMF-led Inter-Agency Task Force on Finance Statistics to publish a Public Sector Debt Statistics Guide for compilation and reporting of public debt data and also the World Bank led initiative of developing a Public Sector Debt Database based on standard reporting templates for cross-country comparison. group with a broad understanding of the need to clearly define the scope of coverage in debt data presentation, taking into cognisance the fact that data could be compiled for different levels of government and instrument types. The Secretariat s initiative on developing debt bulletin in Subsequent sessions on producing reports using CScountries also capitalises on its renewed focus in member DRMS were very engaging and participants expressed countries to develop a comprehensive public debt database in appreciation of the reporting functionality of the system. CS-DRMS through its interface with central bank depository The more technical analytical concepts and the presentations by participants (India and Malaysia) generated systems for populating domestic debt database within the same system. Through this initiative, targeted assistance is lots of discussions on sound practices of reporting and being provided to countries through country missions and transparency. The workshop also deliberated on the training of debt managers on key concepts for developing templates developed by the Secretariat for creating a public debt bulletins through regional workshops. public debt bulletin. This was intensively discussed The main objectives of the Asian Regional Workshop were to: through case studies by country participants. By the end of the workshop, participants were able to develop a Provide an overview of debt management conceptual, analytical, draft of debt bulletin for their countries. methodological, definitional and presentational con- cepts on public debt; The workshop attracted participants from India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Discuss the Public Sector Debt Statistics Guide developed under the aegis of the IMF led Task Force on Finance Statistics; China. The workshop was facilitated by Walton Gilpin, Miriam Tamene, Mac Banda, Lalini Dissanayake all from ComSec, and Tobias Wickens (IMF) and Dakshita Das (India). Present the ComSec Debt Bulletin template to participants and; Provide training in generating data from CS-DRMS for use in developing the public debt bulletin. The IMF presentations on the Public Sector Debt Statistics Guide provided a good coverage on the definitional, statistical and presentational aspects of debt data in line with changes Page 10

11 Reviving the Use of CS-DRMS in Guyana: Commonwealth Secretariat Undertakes Audit of the CS-DRMS External Debt Database Guyana has been using the CS-DRMS for administering its external public debt operations since late 1980s. However, in recent years, Guyana could not maintain and update the external debt database in CS-DRMS due to a number of factors. This included a number of debt relief operations provided by the Paris Club and multilateral creditors during the last decade which complicated the compilation of such restructured liabilities in CS-DRMS. Staff turnover within the Ministry of Finance was another key factor that resulted in inadequate capacity to maintain the debt database in CS-DRMS, As a consequence, Guyana resorted to monitor its external debt liabilities in excel spreadsheet. Guyana like all other developing countries has been working towards establishing recognised benchmarks for sound debt management. One requirement is a sound, accurate and up-to-date computerised database on public debt. It is against this background that the authorities in Guyana sought the assistance of the Secretariat to audit the debt database in CS-DRMS. In May 2011, the Commonwealth Secretariat undertook a mission to Guyana in auditing the CS- DRMS external debt database. Based on the audit, the Secretariat recommended specific tasks that needed to be carried out on the database to further improve its quality in line with sound debt management practices. Key among them were to undertake a comprehensive reconciliation of debt records vis-a-vis the creditor statements, compile such liabilities in the CS-DRMS and u p d a t e t h e m w i t h other macroeconomic data. T h e e x e r c i s e w a s v e r y comprehensive and identified and outlined a number of critical areas for improvement in debt data quality. Following this work, Guyana has agreed t o i m p l e m e n t t h e m i s s i o n s recommendations to fine-tune and update data gaps. The Secretariat will support Guyana during this process towards establishing a comprehensive and good quality external debt database in CS-DRMS along with developing adequate institutional capacity to maintain such database. Guyana Crown Agents Workshop on Selected Topics in Debt Management and Introduction to Debt Systems, May 2011 Crown Agents organised a workshop for South Eastern European countries during May on Selected Topics in Debt Management and Introduction to Debt Management Systems in Skopje, Macedonia. The workshop was sponsored by the Crown Agents Foundation and the Commonwealth Secretariat was invited to speak on its debt management systems at the event. Skopje, Macedonia Presentations were made by Sanjay Lollbeharree and Miriam Tamene from the Secretariat on the upcoming new version of CS-DRMS and the functionalities of the next generation of CS-DRMS; and the framework and functions of the forthcoming new software product, the CS-PDAT. Page 11

12 C o m m o n w e a l t h S e c r e t a r i a t Debt Management Section Planned Activities July August USA (Washington D.C): S wa z i l an d ( M b ab a n e ) : Review of Public Debt Management and CS-DRMS, Jamaica (Kingston): Restructuring the Debt Management Unit IMF Course on External Debt Statistics, IMF Institute Austria (JVI, Vienna): IMF India (Bengaluru): Project Management Meeting with WIPRO and First Iteration of PDAT development,, L i b e r i a ( M o n r o v i a ) : WAIFEM / Comsec Regional Course on Monitoring Private Sector External Debt Workshop on Public Sector Debt Statistics,, Nigeria (Lagos): WAIFEM / Comsec Regional Debt Debt Management Section Special Advisory Services Division Commonwealth Secretariat Marlborough House Pall Mall London SW1Y 5HX : +44 (0) : +44 (0) : : csdrms@commonwealth.int Ghana (Accra): Assistance on interfacing Domestic Debt D a t a i n C S - D R M S ; interfacing GIFMIS & CS- DRMS; assess feasibility of using CS-DRMS for aid management & collection & building PSED database, Nigeria (Abuja): Incountry Training on use of Guyana (Georgetown): Review Mission on Public Debt Management Barbados (Bridgetown): Assistance on interfacing domestic debt data for upload into CS-DRMS and with IFMIS September Manager s Seminar and User Group Meeting U K ( C a m b r i d g e U n i v e r s i t y ) : U K D e b t Management Seminar Central Banking, CS-DRMS for public debt management Slovenia (Ljubljania): Centre of Excellence in In November, Sanjay Kumar (India) joined the DMS team as an economist. Sierra Leone (Freetown): Joint Comsec-WAIFEM In Country DSA Training Workshop Finance (CEF) and Crown Agents workshop on CS- DRMS - Helping Countries Better Manage Their Debt Portfolios The DMS team is: Arindam Roy (Head) Economists CS-DRMS User Countries Walton Gilpin (Economist Adviser) Sanjay Kumar (Economist Adviser) Carilus Odumbe (Economist Adviser) Miriam Tamene (Economist) Systems Development Sanjay Lollbeharree (Team Leader) Mac Banda (Business Analyst) Nick Cusk (Systems Development Officer) Alain Fofeh (Systems Development Officer) Vikas Pandey (Systems Development Officer) Kieran Smart (Programmer) Damodar Thejaswee (Tester) Mohammed Zamir (Programmer)