IMF may give developing countries more say
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-09-01 06:41
The International Monetary Fund is set to agree to grant up-and-coming
developing nations greater power in running the fund, The Wall Street Journal
reported on Thursday.
At an IMF board meeting due late on Thursday, member governments are expected
to sign off a plan to quickly increase the voting shares of China, Turkey,
Mexico and South Korea, allowing them more say in which countries get IMF loans
and what economic measures they must adopt in order to qualify for them,
according to the report.
"It will improve the legitimacy and relevance and credibility of the IMF --
that's what we have to restore," said South Korea's Jong Nam Oh, who represents
14 countries on the IMF board.
Current "shares don't reflect the real weight of the members in the world
economy," he added.
The IMF action would make the plan all but final, with formal ratification
expected at the global lender's annual meeting in Singapore next month, said the
report.
The decision "locks in the contours of what an agreement will be," Timothy
Adams, U.S. Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, was quoted as
saying.
While South Korea's economy is twice the size of Belgium's, Seoul's voting
share in the IMF is only about a third of that allotted to Brussels, according
to Treasury figures.
Over the past year, U.S. Treasury officials, along with IMF Managing Director
Rodrigo de Rato, have intensified their push for a new approach to voting
shares, said the report.
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