[stop-imf] Asia must have bigger voice in IMF: Japan (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

Asia must have bigger voice in IMF: Japan

TOKYO, June 15 (AFP) - Japan will press its Group of Seven partners for
Asia to be given a bigger voice in International Monetary Fund
decision-making, a top government official said Thursday.

The IMF, long dominated by the United States and Europe, had to take
account of Asia's growing role in the world economy, said vice finance
minister for international affairs Haruhiko Kuroda.

The IMF must "reflect the reality of the world economy" if it wants "to
continue to perform its central role as a truly global institution in the
international financial system," he told the Foreign Correspondents' Club
of Japan.

"Despite the fact that many emerging economies, including in Asia, have
become important economic powers, their international trade has increased
dramatically and their weight in the international financial market is
growing, the allocation of quota shares, voting shares, and board
representation of the Asian countries are limited," he said.

"I believe that an immediate review of quota allocation, reflecting
changes in the world economy, is essential," Kuroda added.

"We would like to raise this issue at the Fukuoka meeting." Finance
ministers from the elite Group of Seven nations will gather at Fukuoka in
southwest Japan on July 8 to prepare for a Group of Eight summit from July
21 to 23 in the southern island of Okinawa.

The G8 adds Russia to the G7 members: Britain, Canada, France, Germany,
Italy, Japan and the United States.

Japan has been pushing for an Asian monetary fund to bail out regional
countries in times of crisis, an idea that is anathema to the United
States which fears an erosion of the IMF's dominance.

Japan is the IMF's second biggest shareholder after the United States,
with 6.33 percent of the Washington-based body's capital. Europe combined,
however, can outvote Japan, with close to one-third of the voting rights.
The Japanese government's grumbling about the IMF reached a head earlier
this year when it put up Kuroda's predecessor, Eisuke Sakakibara, for the
job of the organisation's managing director.

The post has traditionally always gone to a European, and was eventually
taken in March by Germany's Horst Koehler.