Mukherjee congratulates new IMF MD

Washington, June 29 (PTI) Indian Finance Minister Pranab
Mukherjee on Tuesday congratulated French Finance Minister
Christine Lagarde on her appointment as the new Managing
Director of the International Monetary Fund.
In a message to Lagarde, Mukherjee congratulated her on
her new position and said India is looking forward to working
with her in her capacity as the new IMF Managing Director.
Lagarde, who had travelled to New Delhi canvassing for
her election, is the first woman named to the top IMF post
since the institution's inception in 1944.
"The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) today selected Christine Lagarde to serve as IMF
Managing Director and Madame Chairman of the Executive Board
for a five-year term, starting on July 5, 2011," an official
IMF announcement said Tuesday.
"I am deeply honored by the trust placed in me by the
Executive Board. I would like to thank the fund's global
membership warmly for the broad-based support I have received.
I would also like to express my respect and esteem for my
colleague and friend, Agustín Carstens," she said in her first
official statement.
Earlier in the day, at a joint news conference with US
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Mukherjee pointed out
that during the election process, India had insisted that the
IMF Managing Director should be selected through a transparent
mechanism, not specific to any region or any particular
nation.
"On the basis of that, we also suggested that we would
like to be a part of the consensus, which should be evolved,"
he said.
A day earlier, speaking at a panel discussion organised
by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Brookings
Institute, Mukherjee stressed on the need for reforming
international financial institutions like the IMF and the
World Bank.
"I must say that the institutions, when they are
established in a particular context and when that context no
longer remains relevant, those institutions are to be
reformed," Mukherjee said.
"The world has undergone a major change since 1945. New
realities are too yet reflected in the composition, voice and
decision-making process of these institutions. But at the same
time, I'm quite confident that these institutions will be
reformed," he noted.
"If we remember, another institution was attempted under
similar pressures, old GATT, but it did not materialise.
Ultimately, after 30 years of the establishment of the Breton
Woods institutions in 1994, we could establish the World Trade
Organisation," he said.
"Therefore, with the change of time, institutions are to
adjust with the reality prevailing at that point of time,"
Mukherjee said.