FM holds bilateral meetings with his counterparts

Hyderabad, May 6 : On the sidelines of the ADB annual meet of Board of Governors, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has been holding a slew of bilateralmeetings with his counterparts from various countries,including China, Japan and Malaysia.

This morning Mr Chidambaram met Malaysian Finance Minister Y B Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, AustralianMinister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer Peter Dutton, New Zealand Minister for Economic Development and Associate Minister for Finance Trevor Mallard and Cambodian Senior Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon.

Issues of bilateral interest, the role of the ADB as adevelopment institution, the prospects of growth in the Asia-Pacific Region, and the state of the Indian economy as well as its potential for investmentsfigured in these talks, official sources said here.

The Finance Minister during the last two days has met his counterparts from China, Korea, Japan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan.

When asked what transpired in his meeting with Chinese Finance Minister Jin Ranqing, Mr Chidambaram said,''we reviewed the progress in Sino-Indian economic relations. It was agreed that these relations were moving at a satisfactory pace,''.

The Indian Finance Minister also had a bilateral meeting with Governor for Germany, Ms Karin Kortmann, Parliamentary State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Mr Chidambaram is Governor for India and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The Finance Minister has had a very hectic schedule ever since the Annual Meet began on May 3, 2006, in this historic city, chairing various sessions, attending to his guests and holding bilateral meetings.

Last night, he hosted a gala dinner at Falakuma Palace, once the residence of the Nizam of Hyderabad, for his overseas guests.

UNI

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