Global Government Finance Summit 2026: participants arrived in Dublin from around the world | Credit: Deirdre Brennan for Global Government Finance
The pressures and possibilities facing finance ministries across the globe came under the microscope at the Global Government Finance Summit 2026 in Dublin.
Senior government representatives at the event – organised in partnership with Ireland’s Department of Finance – came together on 14-15 September from nations including Anguilla, Argentina, Belgium, Georgia, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Lithuania, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, Tanzania, UK and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The Summit – partnered this year by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Visa – is our annual meeting of public servants responsible for public finances, fiscal policy and economic management.
The 2026 agenda was inspired by Global Government Finance and Global Government Forum’s research study The Future of the Finance Ministry (published in May), for which 10 government finance leaders were interviewed by Ireland Department of Finance chief economist John McCarthy alongside the Global Government Finance team.
Topics discussed in the Irish capital included how the increasingly complex economic and geopolitical environment is affecting the work of finance ministries to the challenges and opportunities of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into public administration.
The Future of the Finance Ministry: read the report
Global fragmentation
The UK’s former Cabinet secretary and head of the civil service Lord Gus O’Donnell and McCarthy himself kicked off the Summit, speaking in a session titled ‘Exploring the evolving role of finance ministries.’
“Our [governments’] ability to tackle global challenges has gone down dramatically,” Lord O’Donnell, who is now an ambassador at consultancy Frontier Economics, said. “On health, trade, climate change – there should be a global solution but we’re not getting these. We need groupings that will get together but they have been very slow at getting together.”
“We [public finance leaders] all know what to do but we don’t know how to persuade the politicians how to do it,” he said more generally about public servants’ challenges.
McCarthy highlighted an Ireland Department of Finance report, Future Forty: A Fiscal and Economic Outlook to 2065 (published in November 2025), that examined how demographic, technological, social and environmental trends could impact Ireland’s public finances over the next 40 years. He described demographics as “moving from the margins to the mainstream” as a topic of importance.
“There is a new rule in economics – you can’t have a presentation without including AI,” McCarthy later joked, with a nod to one of the Summit’s hot topics.
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Beyond budgeting and economic resilience
A session titled ‘Beyond budgeting: moving from financial planning to delivering outcomes’ kicked off day two.
Discussion was led by Struan Little, chief strategist in the New Zealand Treasury (one of the study’s interviewees); Ranjiva Prasad, senior director at Visa Government Solutions; and Elijah Mwandumbya, deputy permanent secretary in Tanzania’s Ministry of Finance.
Topics raised included identifying ‘what matters most’ in public spending, the impact of spending scrutiny, payments digitisation as an ‘efficiency multiplier’ and the economic potential of digital identity solutions.
This was followed by a session titled ‘Economic resilience – finance ministries in the driving seat?’.
This discussion was led by Argentina’s Treasury secretary Carlos Guberman (one of the study’s interviewees) and Alfonso Sahuquillo López, deputy director-general for economic analysis and programming in Spain’s Ministry of Finance.
Read more: Meeting the moment: how finance ministries are evolving as expectations surge
Digital transformation and talent
The first session of day two’s afternoon was titled ‘Firing up finance ministry digital transformation.’
This featured presentations from Conrad Smewing, the UK’s HM Treasury-based director-general for public spending and joint-head of the UK Government Finance Function; Eric Wazorko, principal – federal financial services at AWS; and Abdullah Al Zaabi, director of the Treasury Department in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s Ministry of Finance.
The Summit’s concluding session was titled ‘Future-proofing finance ministry talent.’
This featured Íris Huld Christersdóttir, head of division and specialist in the Department of Public Management and Reform in Iceland’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs; and Andrew Lai Chi-wah, permanent secretary for financial services and the Treasury in Hong Kong (one of the study’s interviewes).
Read more: Tax hikes stayed ‘modest’ in 2025 despite global public finance strains: OECD
Building international connections
“There are no easy answers to global finance challenges, not least because of the unpredictable global political environment and burden of rising public debt,” said Global Government Finance editor Ian Hall. “But the insights shared and connections forged illustrate the opportunities for finance ministries to evolve and ultimately transform their operations. Our team greatly appreciate the collaborative spirit again embraced at our event and look forward to continuing to build international connections.”
“At AWS we hear from government leaders that the biggest obstacles to modernisation are rarely about the technology – they are legacy ways of working and institutional practices that no single country has to solve alone. This is why a closed, peer-to-peer forum where leaders can speak candidly is valuable,” said AWS principal advisor on government transformation María Inés Baqué.
“The most impactful trend we see is finance ministries moving from periodic, backward-looking audits to continuous, AI-driven prevention. Finance ministries can redesign for the AI era – investing now in real-time, source-level data collection, building cross-functional teams that include data scientists as well as policy and operational experts. They can continue to learn from each other: governments don’t compete and can share solutions to address common challenges,” she added.
“What was particularly impressive about the event was the international participation by finance ministries all the way from Argentina to New Zealand,” said Visa’s Prasad. “The breadth of perspectives meant that the event stretched far beyond our warm hosts in Dublin.”
“Economic resilience requires a sense of belonging or social cohesion and so it is the task of finance ministries to focus on social inclusion, as well as building fiscal buffers to protect against shocks,” he added.
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Government-led programme
Since its launch in 2015, the Global Government Finance Summit has become one of the leading international forums for public finance leadership, bringing together heads of finance ministries from developed and emerging economies.
The invitation-only roundtable event provides a unique opportunity for finance ministry leaders to exchange ideas with international peers facing such challenges in different national contexts. Unlike traditional conferences, the event focuses on peer learning and practical experience-sharing.
The Summit has previously been hosted by finance ministries and government departments including: Singapore Ministry of Finance; HM Treasury, UK; German Federal Ministry of Finance; French Ministry of the Economy and Finance; Ministry of Finance, Estonia; and the General Treasury of Morocco.
This government-led approach ensures discussions remain focused on the real-world challenges facing public finance leaders and their organisations.
The Summit’s discussions are held under the Chatham House rule to encourage people to speak freely. Lord O’Donnell and John McCarthy gave permission for their quotes to be used in this report.
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