Manuel to head up IMF panel
8 September 2008
South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has been appointed chairman of a committee of eminent persons which will assess the decision-making framework of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In a statement last week, IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn announced the appointment of the committee, which will investigate and provide advice on any modifications that might enable the institution to fulfil its global mandate more effectively.
The committee, chaired by Manuel, includes former IMF managing director Michel Camdessus; Max Pam Professor at the University of Chicago Kenneth Dam; Pacific Investment Management co-CEO Mohamed El-Erian; Indonesian Finance Minister Mulyani Indrawati; Bank of Mexico governor Guillermo Ortíz; Citigroup senior counsellor Robert Rubin; and Lamont University Professor at Harvard University Amartya Sen.
Realigning voting power
Strauss-Kahn said that important progress had been made in the reform of the IMF's governance, including the initiation of a process to realign members' voting power within the fund.
"However, the task of enhancing the fund's legitimacy and effectiveness must also come to grips with the question of whether the significant changes since the establishment of the fund require reform of the institutional framework through which members' voting power is actually exercised," he said.
Among other things, Strauss-Kahn said that this would require careful consideration of the respective roles and responsibilities of the board of governors, the international monetary and financial committee, the executive board and fund management.
Concrete proposal by 2009
The committee's perspective, which Strauss-Kahn said he hoped to have by April 2009, would provide yet another important input to the IMF's reform efforts.
"I want to thank these eminent persons for agreeing to bring their experience, expertise, and wisdom to bear on the on-going reform of IMF governance," he said. "It is my hope that concrete proposals can be distilled from this large body of work by September 2009."
Source: BuaNews
