US TREASURY ABU DHABI OFFICE

UNCLAS ABU DHABI 000636

SIPDIS



DEPT FOR NEA


E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KMPIO EFIN
SUBJECT: US TREASURY ABU DHABI OFFICE


1. This is an action request. Please see paragraph 6


2. The US Treasury Office of Technical Assistance (OTA),has
opened a regional office in Embassy Abu Dhabi funded by the
Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) under the
Partnership for Financial Excellence (PFE). The office
serves all countries under NEA, plus West Bank and Gaza,
with the exception of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Libya. Treasury
representatives George Mullinax, Regional Advisor, Financial
Institutions Policy and Regulation Program and Michael
Grifferty, Regional Advisor, Government Debt Issuance and
Management welcome your inquiries and ideas for assistance
to local counterparts. Treasury will forward a more
detailed description of the project and potential activities
to Economic officers and MEPI representatives at posts.


3. The United States Treasury Department, through the
provision of technical advice, endeavors to assist the
transformation of public and commercial financial systems
from state directed operations to market based systems. The
advisory services of Treasury's program emphasize policy
development leading to structural changes within the
respective financial systems.


4. Five core areas of financial assistance are provided in
Treasury's program: budget policy and management, financial
institutions policy and regulation, government debt issuance
and management, enforcement policy and administration, and
tax policy and administration.


5. The mission of the Government Debt Issuance and
Management Technical Assistance Team is to provide advice to
national authorities as they develop markets for internal
and external government securities. An inherent part of this
mission is development of a coherent management strategy for
internal and external liabilities. For internal markets,
our mission is to develop market-based issuance practices
and trading mechanisms for domestic government securities
that support macroeconomic stabilization. Goals within this
mission are to provide 1) a non-inflationary means of public
finance to ministries of finance; 2) instruments and markets
for monetary policy implementation; and 3) support to
development of broadly based financial markets.


6. The mission of the Financial Institutions Policy and
Regulation Program is to assist ministries of finance,
central banks, banking regulation and supervision agencies,
insurers of deposits, and other banking sector entities with
the development of viable, market-oriented banking systems.
This is accomplished through the use of resident and
intermittent (short-term) advisors who are experts in
banking regulation and supervision, risk management, problem
bank resolution, bank restructuring and privatization,
deposit insurance, macroeconomic and monetary policy,
treasury operations and payment (settlement) systems,
banking legislation, and commercial banking.


7. Action Request: Treasury OTA welcomes your inquiries and
ideas for assistance to local counterparts. Please provide
Economic Section points of contact to Grifferty
(griffertymp@state.gov, 971.2.414.2537) and/or Mullinax
(mullinaxgl@state.gov, 971.2.414.2221)

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