From Chinese Press

IMF's new chief should come from China

(peopledaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-05-20 14:17

Who will succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn as the next managing director of International Monetary Fund (IMF)? This is the most heated argument within international financial circles these days. John Lipsky, the IMF's No.2 official, said that he would step down after his current term expires at the end of August.

World opinion unanimously opposes the idea that an American monopoly on the senior positions of two key financial institutions, the IMF and the World Bank, and is inclined to suggest that the new chief should come from a developing country. Thus, China, with a bigger say in IMF, has the opportunity to choose a candidate for IMF's next presidency.

Currently, the IMF is experiencing the biggest adjustment since its establishment following World War II. Last November, the percentage of voting rights for European countries in the IMF slipped out of the top three. However, China, with 6.394 percent of the vote, only 0.07 percent less than that of Japan, ranks third in the IMF. Despite the fact that China is still far from the United States, which has a stake of 16.407 percent, the country has already surpassed Germany, France the United Kingdom and Italy in this regard.

The stake increase means China will have more space to submit policies and proposals to the IMF, and it also means that China will send more officials to influence and participate in the IMF's macroeconomic decision-making. One of the key jobs of the IMF is to monitor trade and provide capital assistance, which the rising China is good at. If the new chief comes from China, he or she would definitely facilitate the economic exchange between the world and China, the world's top trading power and the country with the world's largest holder of foreign reserves.

In recent years, many people have criticized the IMF's slow reaction toward the financial crisis and the nearly corrupt banking system in various countries and its show of little concern to the financial development of developing countries.

The comprehensive reform of the IMF has become the trend of the times and it will be a good remedy for the old defective IMF if more Chinese elements are added to the IMF's senior management. It will also be conducive to further enhancing the IMF's concern toward emerging economies and the harmony of the trade and economic relations between developing and developed countries.

A number of eminent financiers and bankers have emerged in China over the past 10 years. Justin Yifu Lin, who took the post of the World Bank's vice president a few years ago, is one of the best. Zhu Min, who assumed the office of the special adviser to the chief of the IMF in 2010 and has served as the vice president of the Bank of China and the vice governor of the People's Bank of China, Chinese central bank, has studied and worked in the United States for many years and is familiar with international financial rules and regulations. Furthermore, he is familiar with the ways of communication between China and Western countries. It can be seen that there is no lack of suitable Chinese candidates for the next chief of the IMF.

It will be great sign of respect for a rising China and a symbolic step of optimizing the international financial order if the 24 executive directors who hold shares of the IMF can see this clearly and elect a Chinese chief of the IMF.