October 27, 2008

Asian leaders will find the first global summit on the current financial turmoil a perfect venue to demand a key stake for the region in any new international financial system, experts say. As Europe and the United States clash over their leadership role in framing a new international financial architecture at the November 15 meeting in Washington, Asians feel they have much of a stake in the stability of the global system as the industrialized countries, the experts said.” The big question is how you can restructure the international economic regime in a way that makes countries such as India and China feel that they not only have a stake but also have real influence," said Eswar Prasad, former head of the China division at the International Monetary Fund.
The Washinton-based IMF has often been criticized as increasingly unrepresentative of the global economy, with emerging economies, especially Asian ones, chronically underweighted in their voting shares."The problem with the Bretton Woods institutions in the way they are currently structured is that these major economies feel that those institutions are still the fiefdoms of the US in particular and advanced economies in general," Prasad said.