Over the past few days, the Beijing office of the International Monetary Fund has been busy nervously adjusting relevant data after receiving the news that China has increased its share.
The International Monetary Fund began to solve the problem of increasing China's share last year. On June165438+1October 17, 2000, the IMF Executive Board set up a special capital increase committee for China, consisting of 13 executive directors including China. After many discussions, the Committee reached a consensus on 20001654381October 3, proposing to increase China's share in the IMF from the original 4,687.2 million SDR to 6,369.2 million SDR, which was the same as that of Canada and tied for eighth place. The next day, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund unanimously adopted the recommendation of the Committee and submitted the draft resolution on special capital increase of China to the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund, the highest authority of the International Monetary Fund, which is composed of 183 member countries, for voting. On February 5th, the IMF Board voted and unanimously adopted a resolution to increase China's share.
The International Monetary Fund is one of the specialized agencies of the United Nations. It was founded in 1945 and has 183 member countries. Its purpose is to stabilize the international exchange rate, abolish foreign exchange controls that hinder world trade, promote international cooperation on monetary issues, and provide short-term loans to member States that encounter temporary foreign exchange difficulties. Since its establishment, the International Monetary Fund has been playing an important role in the international financial field. Since the fund's funds mainly come from a certain number of shares paid by member countries to the fund, the main right of member countries is to enjoy different amounts of special drawing rights according to the number of shares. The Special Drawing Right (SDR) of the International Monetary Fund was founded in 1969, which is a new concept of international reserve currency unit. That is to say, when a member country has difficulties in its balance of payments, it can borrow a certain multiple of its share from the International Monetary Fund. At the same time, the number of shares also determines the voting rights and corresponding obligations of member countries in the IMF. The greater the share, the greater the voting rights.
Looking back at the history of the relationship between China and the International Monetary Fund, it is not difficult to find that since the establishment of 1945 Fund, China's share in it has been ups and downs. In these ups and downs, people can deeply understand the relationship between a country's position in the world economy and its own economic development.
1945 65438+On February 27th, 29 countries signed an agreement to establish the International Monetary Fund. China is one of the 29 founding countries. At that time, China ranked third in the IMF, second only to the United States and Britain.
After the founding of New China, due to the restriction of international political environment, the issue of China's representation in the International Monetary Fund has not been resolved for a long time. During the period from 1959 to 1980, the IMF made several general capital increases. Because the Kuomintang authorities, who occupied China's legal seat in the IMF at that time, were seriously short of economic strength and lacked the ability to increase its share in the general capital increase, China's share in the IMF dropped from the third place in the early days to 16.
1980 In April and May, People's Republic of China (PRC) resumed its legal seats in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. In the same year, China increased its capital twice, which made China's ranking in the IMF rise from 16 to 8th. On this basis, China also obtained the status of a separate constituency within the IMF, thus having the right to elect its own executive director.
However, since the 1980s, due to the influence of Saudi Arabia's special capital increase and CIS countries' entry into the IMF, by the end of 2000, China's share in the IMF was 4,687.2 million SDR, which decreased in proportion to the actual share of the IMF, and its ranking dropped from the eighth place in the early days after the seat was restored to 1 1. This situation is out of proportion to China's economic strength. In order to meet the needs of China's economic development and opening to the outside world, the leaders of China and China and the directors of the International Monetary Fund have repeatedly asked the International Monetary Fund for special capital increase. After unremitting efforts, the Board of Directors of the International Monetary Fund voted on February 5 this year, and passed a resolution without objection or abstention, once again raising China's share to the eighth place.
Moderator: China's economy is on the fast track of healthy development, which has become the consensus of international economic circles. Not long ago, an internationally renowned management consulting company conducted a survey of major companies in the world, and China ranked second in the selection of the best investment countries in the world. The increase of China's share in the International Monetary Fund makes people realize that China, as the largest developing country, is playing an increasingly important role in the international economic field. Mr Ichiro Otani, chief representative of the China Representative Office of the International Monetary Fund, also expressed the same view.
Reporter: Hello, Mr. Otani, thank you for accepting our interview. According to the latest report, in early February this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved China to increase its share in the organization. As we all know, in the past, China ranked 1 1 among the member countries of the International Monetary Fund. After the share increased, China ranked eighth, tied with Canada. What do you think is the reason for the IMF to do this? Otani: For many years, China has been asking the IMF to increase its share in order to gain a position in the IMF commensurate with its economic strength in the world. Especially after 1997, when China resumed the exercise of sovereignty in Hong Kong, China's economy included a part of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and its economic strength was expanded. Compared with other IMF members, China's economic status has improved significantly. Therefore, the Government of China asked the International Monetary Fund to expand its share. Over the past four years, the IMF Executive Board has been discussing how to meet China's desire to increase its share. Based on the calculation and investigation of GDP, trade volume, foreign exchange reserves, balance of payments and other indicators, the Board of Directors finally reached a positive conclusion that China's economic status has indeed improved compared with other members, so the IMF decided to adjust China's share in the IMF.
Reporter: What criteria does the IMF use to determine the share of member countries?
Otani: I just mentioned that to determine the share of a member country, the IMF must measure its economic strength from several indicators. The first is GDP, that is, gross domestic product, and the degree of participation of member countries in international transactions, including the import and export volume of products and services, foreign exchange reserves, etc. These are all factors that need to be considered. At the same time, it is necessary to compare with the corresponding indicators of other member countries, and refer to the share of other member countries with similar characteristics to China, so as to finally determine the share of a country.
Reporter: What does it mean for IMF member countries to increase their share?
Otani: With the increase of its share, China's voting right and decision-making power on the IMF Executive Board have also increased accordingly. This means that compared with the past, China's influence has been strengthened or improved.
Reporter: As we all know, China is the largest developing country in the world. What role do you think China will play in the IMF?
Otani: In the past 20 years, China has been very concerned about and sympathetic to the cause of developing countries, and has also given special consideration to their needs. I believe this is still the role that China wants to play. Moreover, considering the increase of China's share, I believe that the China government hopes to further play a greater leading role in the international community and contribute to the cause of developing countries.
Reporter: How do you evaluate the current economic situation in China?
Otani: China is doing very well. China government has done a very good job in guiding the macro-economic operation. Even though there are many difficulties in structural reform, including the reform of state-owned enterprises, the reform of banking system and the establishment of social security system, these problems are closely related to monetary policy and fiscal policy, and the China government has done a very good job. Last year, China's economic growth rate reached 7.5% or even 8%. This year, China hopes to achieve 7% economic growth. Even if American economic growth slows down, the foundation of Japanese economic recovery is still not solid, but I don't think the economies of these countries will have much impact on China, and I believe the China administration will also adopt necessary macroeconomic policies to maintain economic growth.
Moderator: On the topic of increasing China's share in the International Monetary Fund, we invited Mr. Li Ruogu, Assistant Governor of the People's Bank of China. After the Asian financial crisis, more and more people understood the word IMF, and its fame soared. I wonder what is the relationship between China and the International Monetary Fund? Can you give us a brief introduction?
Li Ruogu: China resumed its legal seat in the International Monetary Fund on 1980. Although China was a founding member of the International Monetary Fund before 1980, due to the influence of international political factors at that time, the legal seat of China has not been reasonably solved. After 1980, China resumed its legal seat. We started to cooperate with the International Monetary Fund for 2 1 year. In the whole process, the International Monetary Fund has also provided us with many useful experiences in economic system reform and macroeconomic management, and also provided us with financial support. We borrowed two loans from the International Monetary Fund, amounting to about $6,543.86 billion. We repaid these loans in full in advance in the early 1990s. These loans have played an active role in making up the imbalance of international payments and adjusting China's economic structure. Every year, we are consulted by the International Monetary Fund, which is the mechanism for the organization to supervise its member countries. During the operation of the whole mechanism, it also gave us some useful suggestions, which played a certain role in our economic reform and development and provided us with a lot of technical resources. Almost all macro departments in China have received technical assistance from the International Monetary Fund, which has trained thousands of government administrators for us, some of whom have taken up leadership positions. It should be said that in the past 2 1 year, our cooperation with the IMF was effective, and we also made contributions to the IMF. China's economic development and economic system reform are unique in the world, which also enriches the experience of the International Monetary Fund in guiding and assisting developing countries.
Moderator: From your point of view, what is your evaluation of the International Monetary Fund?
Li Ruogu: The International Monetary Fund is one of the three most important international economic organizations. The World Bank, WTO and IMF are among them. Its main purpose is to maintain the stability of international exchange. Since the establishment of 1945, it has played a very important role in maintaining the healthy development of the world economy. You just mentioned that after the Asian financial crisis, it also provided a lot of financial support and policy support assistance. It has played a very important role in the recovery of Asian economy. In the future, with the development of the global economy, the core position of the International Monetary Fund in the international financial field will be further strengthened, so it is a very important international financial institution.
Moderator: This time, it is mentioned that China's ranking in the International Monetary Fund has improved, that is, its share has increased. What does this mean for China?
Li Ruogu: There are two aspects. First, since the reform and opening up 20 years ago, China's economic status has undergone earth-shaking changes, and its role in the international community has become more and more important. China's share rose from 1 1 to the eighth place, which is the recognition of China's great achievements in reform and opening up by the international community. In addition, after we increased our share, we also increased our voice in the IMF. As I said just now, the International Monetary Fund is an important international financial institution, which plays an important role in the international economic field, especially in the formation of the international economic and financial system. In order to make development conform to the interests of developing countries, including China, we need to increase our voice in the International Monetary Fund. We hope that the interests of developing countries can be correctly and appropriately reflected to the international community, so that the international community can pay attention to the interests of developing countries when forming a new international monetary system and international economic system.
Moderator: I mentioned the right to speak just now. Is the right to speak in the International Monetary Fund determined by share?
Li Ruogu: Basically, because IMF shares are a bit like shares. If you subscribe, the subscribed shares will be even larger. Your right to speak is related to your shares, although it is not a one-to-one relationship. But it does matter, and it has a larger share, and of course it has a greater right to speak, because the major decisions of the IMF need 85% of the total voting rights to pass, because the United States holds 654330 shares in the IMF.
Moderator: So China rose from 1 1 to the eighth place. What is its voice in this share?
Li Ruogu: In the past, our voting rights in the IMF accounted for 2.2 1%, but this time it accounted for 3% after being promoted to the eighth place, which tied with Canada for the eighth place. In terms of share, it still does not occupy a large share, and of course, the right to speak cannot be compared with developed countries. However, it is the accumulation of China's achievements in reform and opening up for more than 20 years that has enabled the international community to recognize China's position in the world economy. So I think that through this increase, our right to speak in the IMF has been strengthened to a certain extent. Of course, this right to speak is not entirely related to the share status. Countries like China play a very important role in the world economic status, so China's speech and voice in the IMF have attracted the attention of the majority of member countries.
Moderator: Just now you mentioned that China has no debt problem in the IMF. What are China's contributions to the IMF?
Li Ruogu: It should be said that our contribution to the IMF can be divided into several aspects. On the one hand, China's economic development model and theory just mentioned have enriched the theory and practice of the International Monetary Fund, including the whole international community, on economic development, economic reform and system reform. On the other hand, we are now creditors of the IMF, which borrows money from China in its daily operation. The third aspect is that during the crisis, especially during the Asian financial crisis, we provided more than $4 billion in support to the IMF through the IMF and bilateral channels.
Moderator: This amount is not small, considering the current economic situation in China.
Li Ruogu: Especially for a developing country like China, with a relatively low per capita GDP and a large number of poor people, it should be said that it is not easy for China to make such a great contribution, and it has indeed been praised and recognized by the international community.
Moderator: We know that during the Asian financial crisis a few years ago, the International Monetary Fund provided financial assistance to some countries, especially Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and South Korea, and put forward many corresponding conditions for financial assistance. At that time, conditions became the focus of people's attention and debate. Everyone has a problem with providing financial assistance and the corresponding conditions. What do you think of this problem?
Li Ruogu: I think so. The financial support provided by this fund is very important. At that time, it provided material assistance for the economic recovery of these countries. Of course, there are many negotiable conditions for the International Monetary Fund to provide loans. The IMF has its own traditional policies, which are generally tight, tight in currency and tight in finance, with the aim of restoring economic confidence and growth. Theoretically, it's not very wrong. However, in practice, due to the different situations in different countries, especially this crisis is very different from previous crises, if a model is used to cover all kinds of situations, it means that the IMF deviated from its policy conditions when it first provided assistance, and it realized it, and later corrected it, which also shows that it realized that the initial policy was problematic, and it is reasonable for the international community, especially some developing countries, to criticize its policy.
Moderator: I read some articles recently, which reminded me of the additional conditions put forward by the International Monetary Fund when it provided loans to some countries during the Asian financial crisis, such as free and open capital accounts and transparency, because these issues were really controversial at that time. What is China's view on this?
Li Ruogu: The IMF has really been promoting the opening of current account and capital account. It believes that it is better to open it early than late.
Moderator: What does this public figure in the financial field mean?
Li Ruogu: It is the concept of free flow, free flow of capital, free inflow and outflow. We always believe that the opening of capital account is closely related to the development level of a country, especially the management level and the soundness of the financial system. You can't open the capital account at will without your own conditions. On this issue, we do have different views from the International Monetary Fund. We have expounded our views many times at various international meetings of the International Monetary Fund. Many countries affected by the Asian financial crisis have opened their capital accounts prematurely, but their financial systems are not very sound and their management ability is not very strong. In this case, they were hit hard by the financial crisis, which is inevitable. I think the IMF has basically recognized this problem after we have reiterated it many times, so it now emphasizes that the opening of the capital account should be carried out at a certain stage, not all at once. It should be said that it is not easy for the IMF to reach such an understanding, and it is also ours.
Moderator: The IMF itself has a discussion mechanism. There is a feeling that such coordinating bodies and organizations are playing an increasingly prominent role in international economic activities. Does this reflect a certain trend?
Li Ruogu: You're right. With the development of international economy, especially globalization, it is becoming more and more important for countries to coordinate their policies, including development policy, economic policy and financial policy. Therefore, many dialogue and coordination mechanisms have emerged, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the recent G20, and the 10+3 mechanism in Asia. These mechanisms are aimed at strengthening mutual understanding among countries. In particular, the status of developing countries like China in the world economy is rising, and its influence on the world economy is also increasing. Therefore, some developed countries in the world are willing to strengthen the coordination with China on international economic development policies.