By Abdi Ali
Published June 5, 2019
A new system to help countries manage their public debt shall be launched on June 6, 2019.
Meridian, the new web-based resource, shall be launched in the British capital, London, during the two-day Commonwealth Public Debt Management Forum at which senior government officials and representatives of international financial organisations are sharing and exploring strategies for effective public debt management and debt sustainability.
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Saying the Commonwealth Meridian debt management software will be available to all client countries, Patricia Scotland, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, says “The impact of unsustainable debt on governments’ ability to fund essential services such as health and education and to direct funds to social and economic development is dire and damaging.”
Pamella McLaren, Adviser and Head of the Commonwealth Debt Management Unit, says deploying the Commonwealth Meridian to client countries to strengthen their public debt management is a priority as “public debt is on the rise again with a substantial number of countries at high risk of debt distress.”
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The Commonwealth says its Meridian will now replace the current Commonwealth Debt Recording and Management System (CS-DRMS) that, it says, ‘has been helping over 100 agencies including Ministries of Finance, Treasuries and Central Banks in 60 countries to manage more than USD 2.5 trillion of public debt’ as it ‘provides more and upgraded features to better support countries to formulate, implement and monitor their debt strategies’.
It lists the following as the new features in Meridian:
- Catering for more types of instruments such as Islamic bonds, accounts payables/receivables, insurance and pensions, financial derivatives and special drawing rights. This is in addition to loans, grants and debt securities
- Improved holding management of debt securities
- More payment mechanism options such as ‘SWIFT’ to promote integration with other financial management systems to improve data quality and accuracy
- Integrated management of claims and risk analysis for contingent liability management
- The ability to record details about private sector external debt applications
- Scheduled tasks with notifications possible via email or SMS to foster control, accountability and transparency
- Workflow management to model and support any arrangement/institutional structure for debt management, and
- Web-based technology organised around a central repository of data from which key stakeholders can access information through the internet. This ensures that real time data is always available even to remote offices.
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