BRIC countries urge IMF to scrap requirement that the head be a European.

[pampango]

http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/05/24/idINIndia-57251520110524

IMF directors for five key emerging market economies on Tuesday said it was time to scrap an "obsolete unwritten convention" that requires the head of the International Monetary Fund to be a European. In a joint statement, IMF directors for China, Brazil, India, South Africa and Russia, or BRIC countries, criticized European officials for implying that the successor to former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn should continue to be a European.

They urged "abandoning the obsolete unwritten convention that requires that the head of the IMF be necessarily from Europe" and argued that it undermined the legitimacy of the global institution.

The BRIC nations said the recent financial crisis, which erupted in developed countries, underscored the need to urgently reform international financial institutions to reflect the growing clout of developing countries in the world economy.

"We believe that, if the Fund is to have credibility and legitimacy, its managing director should be selected after broad consultation with the membership," the IMF directors said, adding that the new IMF boss should be chosen on the basis of competence, not nationality.

[Jeneral2885]

1. The Europeans will never give it up

so long are America nominates an American to the World Bank.

Anyway, nationality is not the issue. The change of ideas from neoliberalism is.

[Ghost Dog]

3. Certainly, the way both heads are appointed needs to and certainly will change.

Indeed, "the presidency of the World Bank is a rare presidential plum – an appointment that is not subject even to Congressional hearings."

Such powerful organisations should be organised according to genuinely democratic principles.

[Jeneral2885]

4. Democratic or not

if the ideas remain, the organisation still won't change. Neoliberalism prevails.

[Ghost Dog]

6. No true participatory democracy would countenance neoliberalism.

It would be an oxymoron.

[Jeneral2885]

7. not really

Ideas have impact. Leadership has very little impact.

See the work on organisational culture by Cather Weaver, Hypocrisy Trap:Hypocrisy Trap: The World Bank and the Poverty of Reform,

[DJ13]

2. That French lady must really scare them

:)

[Distant Observer]

5. Request for non-discrimination means "China, Russia, India" are SCARED???