[IMF WB Conference] Finance ministers discuss poverty

from Business Week

Poorer nations need to have a greater voice in the management of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, India's finance minister said Wednesday during a meeting of finance ministers from the Commonwealth.

Rising global oil prices, plans to write off loans to highly indebted poor countries and ways to reduce poverty are also the focus of the three-day conference that opened Tuesday.

The conference precedes the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Singapore next week, and key decisions made by the Commonwealth ministers will have a bearing on that gathering.

Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said the structures of the IMF and the World Bank must be changed to reflect the growing economic strength of developing nations.

"A flawed structure will increasingly undermine the effectiveness of these institutions," Chidambaram said in his address at the meeting, which brings together Britain and former British colonies.

The IMF will be discussing a proposal at next week's meeting in Singapore to boost the voting power of four countries -- China, South Korea, Mexico and Turkey -- to reflect their greater share of the global economy.

Inaugurating the conference Tuesday, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse also drew attention to terrorism, which he said was increasingly undermining regional economic cooperation. Sri Lanka's bitter war with separatist Tamil rebels has flared anew in recent months.

Rajapakse also urged rich Commonwealth countries to step up aid for poor nations. "We note that that the delivery of aid has unfortunately been below expectation," he said.

The Commonwealth represents about 2 billion people, or 30 percent of the world's population. The group comprises both rich countries, such Britain and Canada, and some of the world's poorest nations, including Bangladesh and Guyana.