The Annual Meetings are taking place at a critical time in the global economy. There is widespread concern that the global economic recovery is losing momentum. I am certain that ministers and central bank governors will come to these meetings with that concern uppermost in their minds. The key for the Fund is to facilitate discussion of these issues, both in terms of the causes of the problems and the solutions.
We have two innovative products that the Managing Director will submit to the ministers and governors to discuss. The first one is a Consolidated Multilateral Surveillance Report. It brings all the themes of all our multilateral and bilateral surveillance together to assess the state of the global economy and put forward policy options on how member countries can deal with not only the problems they face, but also those faced by the global economy. Second is an action plan by the Managing Director, which puts forward ideas on how the Fund can help its membership to respond to the challenges they face right now.
IMF’s efficiency
First, surveillance. We have just undertaken a major review of Fund surveillance and we will be putting on the table ideas on how to improve our surveillance further, how to make it more relevant, how to make it as interconnected as the world economy. I expect that ministers and governors will look at those proposals and give us ideas on what they are looking for from the Fund.
The second area is Fund lending. Fund lending has played a critical part in supporting the global economy at a very difficult period. We currently have programmes in more than 50 countries, almost a third of the membership. We will be looking to see how ministers and governors would like to improve our lending programmes. We have a major review of Fund lending coming up and their input will be very important.
The final area is Fund governance. In late 2010, the membership agreed on a major overhaul of the IMF’s governance structure. It’s critical in terms of the legitimacy and the relevance of the Fund, and for the member countries to feel that their voice is adequately heard within the institution. Those reforms are supposed to be concluded by the 2012 Annual Meetings, so this is a perfect time to take stock of progress. And, as implementation by the membership has been slow, it is a good time to try and accelerate that process.
Outcomes
The Annual Meetings are a unique occasion. Policymakers from 187 countries will be coming together to discuss global economic issues. The aim of the Fund is to provide a forum for dialogue, and a forum for understanding the issues that each other face. It is also an occasion for formulating and taking forward collective actions—actions by the entire membership—to impart momentum to the global economic recovery.
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