Deputy Prime Minister & Minister For Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam In United States For International Monetary And Financial Committee Meetings And Visits To Universities

1.   Deputy Prime Minister & Minister for Finance & Minister for Manpower, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, will be in Washington, DC from 19-22 April 2012 to chair the meetings of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), held in conjunction with the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings. This will include a Joint Meeting of the IMFC and the Group of 20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors to discuss actions to enhance global defences, including IMF resources, so as to contain the effects of the crisis in the Euro-area. DPM Tharman will be accompanied in Washington by officials from the Ministry of Finance and Monetary Authority of Singapore.

2.   From Washington, DPM Tharman will travel to Boston and New York to meet academic thought leaders and visit selected tertiary education institutions, in his capacity as Chairman of the Ministry of Education’s International Academic Advisory Panel. He will make these visits with Minister of State for Defence and Education, Mr Lawrence Wong, who is the Chairman of The Committee on University Education Pathways Beyond 2015 (CUEP), as well as members of CUEP and ministry officials.