Finance Minister Eugene Cox, and his permanent secretary Donald Scott will be discussing the recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) review of offshore financial centres during a special meeting in Malta.

The two are in Malta attending the annual Finance Ministers meeting.

The pair left last Sunday and are meeting with delegates from the 54-member countries of the Commonwealth.

The theme of the meeting is `New Challenges for the International Financial Institutions in Supporting Growth and Development'. A topic slated for discussion yesterday was the OECD review of offshore financial centres in relation to harmful tax competition issues.

Organisers said the review was considered a key economic issue for many Commonwealth countries and held that the meeting would provide "an important opportunity for the multilateralisation of these matters, as well as more broadly reaching consensus on the process whereby such decisions are made by organisations with selected membership ''.

Bermuda was one of six countries that were kept off the OECD `blacklist' earlier this year by signing a letter of memorandum promising to conform to its standards by 2005.

Several countries that were put on the list had said they felt the move was a bullying tactic by the OECD.

Mr. Cox and Mr. Scott will be back at the Finance Ministry next Monday.

GOVERNMENT GVT BUSINESS BUC