IMF members agreed on Saturday to pursue reform to make the global financial policeman more representative of emerging economies in Asia and elsewhere.
The International Monetary Fund's governing committee (IMFC) wrapped up its spring meeting by asking IMF chief Rodrigo Rato to come up with "concrete proposals" on voting reform by a September gathering in Singapore.
"To reflect changing times, voice, votes and quotas should reflect the increasing weight and role of emerging economies in the global economy," said the IMFC chairman, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown.
The Singapore annual gathering of the IMF and World Bank will be a "reform summit", he pledged at a news conference.
Long dominated by the United States, European countries and Japan, the IMF is locked in debate over how to better represent emerging economic heavyweights such as China, which now has fewer Fund votes than Belgium.
Most agree on the need for a reform of some shape. But IMF members remain deeply divided over who should lose out in return for emerging powers winning a greater say.
If, as seems likely, a deal is not done by September, Rato has suggested a two-stage process so that "the most under-represented members" are given an ad-hoc rise in their IMF influence pending a more comprehensive reform. The IMFC endorsed this approach."We underscore the role an ad-hoc increase in quotas would play in improving the distribution of quotas to reflect important changes in the weight and role of countries in the world economy," the committee said in a statement. "The committee agrees on the need for fundamental reforms," it added.
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