Finance ministers meet in Brunei

Finance ministers meet in Brunei

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: The Commonwealth finance ministers annual meeting began on Tuesday in the Brunei capital with the focus on the global economy in the wake of the WTO trade talks failure in Mexico.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon said the World Trade Organization's (WTO's) inability to create a new multilateral trading accord during heated negotiations at the Mexican resort town of Cancun would cast a shadow over the Bandar Seri Begawan gathering.

But, he said, Commonwealth officials are expected to put aside the disappointment at the failure of the Cancun talks to discuss the global economic situation and its implications on the group's developing members.

Also, they will be looking at ways of addressing the poverty issue in low-income Commonwealth members.

One-third of the Commonwealth's population live on less than US$1 a day and two-thirds of them survive on less than two $2 a day, while 270 million people within the grouping lack access to clean water. -- AFP