[stop-imf] Africa should have more say in the IMF-Tanzania

[rob@essential.org]

03 Feb 2004 10:59:17 GMT
        Africa should have more say in
        the IMF-Tanzania


        By Daniel Wallis

        DAR ES SALAAM, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Sub-Saharan Africa
        should have more say in the decisions of the International
        Monetary Fund, Tanzania's finance minister told a seminar on
        Tuesday.

        The minister, Basil Mramba, said African nations, including
        some of the poorest countries in the world, had less and less
        influence over the workings of the world finance body.

        "It is still of major concern that we from sub-Saharan Africa are
        represented by only two chairs on the Fund's Executive Boards
        while also our quota share and voting rights continue to decline,"
        he said in the commercial capital of Dar es Salaam.

        The United States pays the most money into IMF coffers, which
        gives it the largest vote -- about 17 percent of the total voting
        power -- at the executive boards where decisions about loans
        are taken.

        The U.S. vote, which comes under the control of the treasury
        secretary, has been known to sway decisions by the
        organisation, which is composed of 184 member countries.
        There are twenty-four executive directors who are appointed or
        elected by member countries.

        In contrast Tanzania commands 0.1 percent of the votes on the
        IMF's board of governors.

        In a speech to open a regional conference on the role of the
        IMF in low-income countries, Mramba also called on the Fund
        to help Africa manage often-crippling debts to overseas
        creditors.

        "We still are badly affected by heavy debt burdens which are
        taking too long to offload and which are threatening to remain
        unsustainable," he told delegates.

        "The Fund could continue advising us on how best to tackle this
        issue, including how to deal more effectively with non-Paris
        Club creditors."

        IMF Deputy Managing Director Augustin Carstens is attending
        the one-day summit in Tanzania, one of the world's poorest
        countries, where more than half the population of 35 million live
        on less than the equivalent of one U.S. dollar a day.

        In July 2003 the IMF said Tanzania could draw $21 million
        following a review of its economy and also approved a new
        three-year $27 million poverty-reduction plan.

        It praised the government's macroeconomic and structural
        reforms, but said the persistence of poverty, especially in rural
        areas, was cause for concern.

        The IMF also said Tanzania was taking welcome steps to
        improve its business climate and urged non-Paris Club creditors
        to provide their share of debt relief to Tanzania, which has won
        considerable relief from donors.

        Mramba called on the world body to be more even-handed in
        enforcing environmental rules. The IMF says one of its central
        goals is promoting sustainable economic growth that is
        environmentally-friendly.

        "We are aware that in all our countries the destruction of the
        environment is progressing at an alarming rate and that its
        poverty outcomes are frightening," he said.