‘Five Treasuries’ conference concludes

25 Jul 2014 04:22 PM

The first ever ‘Five Treasuries’ conference involving the heads of the Australian, Canadian, Irish, New Zealand and United Kingdom treasuries concluded earlier this week.

The Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, Sir Nicholas Macpherson, hosted the gathering in London and Oxfordshire over 21-23 July.

It is the third time the leaders of the Australian, UK and New Zealand treasuries have held such a meeting, and this year for the first time they were also joined by their Irish and Canadian counterparts to form the ‘Five Treasuries’ grouping.

The meetings were attended by:

• Dr Martin Parkinson – Secretary to the Treasury, Australia
• Yaprak Baltacıoğlu – Secretary to the Treasury Board, Canada,
• Paul Rochon – Deputy Minister of Finance, Canada
• John Moran – Secretary General, Department of Finance, Ireland
• Gabriel Makhlouf – Chief Executive and Secretary to the Treasury, New Zealand
• Sir Nicholas Macpherson – Permanent Secretary, HM Treasury, United Kingdom
• Sharon White – Second Permanent Secretary (Finance), HM Treasury, United Kingdom
• John Kingman – Second Permanent Secretary (Economic), HM Treasury, United Kingdom

It was the first time the UK has hosted this gathering and the attendees spent the main part of the conference, 22-23 July, at Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire where they had briefings and discussions on a range of economic and financial issues, including the global macroeconomic environment, spending and taxation, financial regulation, growth and infrastructure, as well as the role of treasuries. Bringing together the top officials in this grouping will help foster closer cooperation between the five finance ministries.

The conference started in London, on Monday 21 July, with a meeting with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, and a dinner hosted by the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney.