• New IMF Training and Technical Assistance Center (SARTTAC) was recently inaugurated in Delhi for Economic Capacity Building in South Asia.
• MoU on SARTTAC was signed last year between IMF director and Finance minister of India.
• Opening of SARTTAC marks a major milestone in the partnership between the IMF and its member countries in the region.

About SARTTAC

• The South Asia Regional Training and Technical Assistance Center (SARTTAC) is expected to become the focal point for planning, coordinating, and implementing the IMF’s capacity development activities in the region on a wide range of areas, including macroeconomic and fiscal management, monetary operations, financial sector regulation and supervision, and macroeconomic statistics.
• This Centre will help address existing training needs and respond to the demand for IMF training in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, while bringing the region’s training volume on par with those of other regions.
• It demonstrates the shared commitment between the IMF and its membership in using technical assistance and training as vehicles for economic stability and inclusive growth.
• SARTTAC will offer courses and seminars for policymakers and other government agencies from the six aforementioned countries.
• It will build upon the IMF’s in-depth experience with capacity development by drawing on the experiences of the IMF’s Regional Technical Assistance Centers and Regional Training Centers, which have a proven track record of delivering technical assistance on economic institution building.
• SARTTAC is financed mainly by its six member countries — Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka — with additional support from Australia, the Republic of Korea, the European Union and the United Kingdom.

About IMF:

• The IMF, also known as the Fund, was conceived at a UN conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States, in July 1944.
• The 44 countries at that conference sought to build a framework for economic cooperation to avoid a repetition of the competitive devaluations that had contributed to the Great Depression of the 1930s.
• The IMF's responsibilities: The IMF's primary purpose is to ensure the stability of the international monetary system—the system of exchange rates and international payments that enables countries (and their citizens) to transact with each other.
• The Fund's mandate was updated in 2012 to include all macroeconomic and financial sector issues that bear on global stability.
• Membership: 189 countries
• Headquarters: Washington, D.C.