Johannesburg - Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan on Wednesday
congratulated Christine Lagarde on her appointment as MD of the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), and urged her to reform the body.
"As the global economy continues to be plagued with
persistent economic challenges, the role of the IMF has and will continue to
become crucial to global coordination and crisis management. I am confident
that Ms Lagarde will be able to actively enhance that role even-handedly and
effectively," he said in a statement.
Gordhan said that the IMF should strengthen its relevance
and legitimacy among all member countries, and needed to take specific steps to
do so.
These included the transfer of quota shares in favour of
emerging and developing countries to increase their relative weights in the
IMF decision-making process, in line with their dynamism in the world economy.
"Therefore, the reforms of the fund's quotas and
governance in 2010 should be implemented at short notice, and a comprehensive
review of the current quota formula should be approved," he said.
Gordhan also called for a commitment that the next IMF MD
would not necessarily be a European citizen.
"Small countries should have appropriate voice. Since
the global crisis, small countries have faced particular challenges that
require greater attention from the IMF," he said.
He also added that there should be a focus on strengthening
the International Monetary and Financial Committee and greater diversity in the
IMF staff in terms of nationality, gender, and academic and professional
backgrounds.
Other issues he felt needed to be addressed were improving the
surveillance of systemically important advanced economies, deepening the
understanding of national experiences on the management of capital flows, and
rapidly developing guidelines for both "sending" and
"receiving" countries without being prescriptive.
He also urged modernising the
lines of thought, adapting them to the reality of global and domestic
economies, and overcoming the prevalence of the dominance of policy perspectives of advanced economies.
"I trust that she will maintain the commitment to
future governance reforms, including increasing the number of executive board
chairs. This would enhance the representation of emerging markets and
developing countries and improve the legitimacy of this important global
financial institution," said Gordhan.