IMF restructuring 'should go beyond adjusting quotas'

A broader range of reforms in the global financial institution is needed to give it "even-handedness" to make its analyses and policy advice more effective, Thomas A. Bernes, the IMF executive director for Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean between 1996 to September 2001, told China Daily in an exclusive interview.

A major problem at the IMF is that "the emerging markets have not felt that the institution is sufficiently even-handed," he said.

"Too often it reflects the interests of large industrial countries. That has made acceptance of their analyses and policy recommendations very difficult", and its impact limited, he said.

While recognizing ongoing discussions within G20 that are making further advances in terms of quotas, the adjustment of the shares "is only a part of a broader issue", Bernes said.

"There is the need to adjust the chairs," said Bernes, who is now executive director and vice-president of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, a think-tank based in Canada.

Before taking up his current job at the think tank, Bernes held a number of important posts with international financial institutions. He was executive secretary of the joint IMF-World Bank Development Committee and deputy corporate secretary of the World Bank between October 2001 and 2005.

He has also been assistant deputy minister of finance and G7 finance deputy in Canada, and served as the senior international economic official representing Canada at high-level meetings. In addition to holding various senior finance, foreign affairs and trade policy positions within the Canadian government, Bernes served as head of the OECD's (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) General Trade Policy Division in the mid-1980s; Kazinform cites China Daily.

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