Both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank still need to exist, but with large-scale reforms, South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Tuesday.
Manuel was briefing reporters in Pretoria after returning from Australia where he attended the Group of 20 (G20) finance ministers’ and central bank governors’ meeting.
South Africa took over chairpersonship of the group at the meeting.
”There is a whole package of reforms that must surely seek to make these institutions much more relevant than they are,” he said.
South Africa will focus on reform of the IMF and the World Bank during its chair of the G20.
The country will also look at the relationship between financial stability and commodity prices and the world’s fiscal space.
Manuel, however, already indicated that reforms of Bretton Woods Institutions are ”paramount”.
”There are ongoing issues of representation in the [World] Bank and in the [IMF], there are issues that relate to the arrangements of the bank and the fund with [their] members, there are issues that relate to the way in which you find people to head up these institutions,” he said.
Manuel said several seminars on South Africa’s focus areas are scheduled to take place in the run-up to the group’s next meeting, due to take place outside Cape Town in November 2007.
The first seminar will take place in Brazil in March 2007 and focus on the reform of the IMF and World Bank.
The second seminar — on financial stability and commodity prices — will take place in April or May in the United States. A third, on the world’s ”fiscal space”, will take place in June.
The G20 includes the wealthy G7 nations — the United States, Germany, Japan, France, Italy, Britain and Canada — as well as the European Union, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey.
Senior IMF and World Bank officials are also attending the G20 meetings. — Sapa