RP to rally support for poor countries at IMF-World Bank meet

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines hopes to rally support for developing countries during the World Bank-International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings in Istanbul, participating Finance officials said yesterday.

High on the agenda of the Oct. 5 to Oct. 7 meetings is the global financial crisis and how countries can recover from it, officials said.

Finance Undersecretary Rosalia de Leon said the Philippines would use the meetings as an opportunity to gather support from more developed countries.

“We will continue to support moves that seek to provide developing countries greater voice and representation. We will discuss ways on how to cope with the downturn,” she told reporters yesterday.

De Leon said it was important for developing countries such as the Philippines to be able to find greater representation in global meetings such as the IMF and the World Bank so that the more advanced countries would be better aware of their needs.

The Group of 20 of G-20, a group of industrialized and developed countries, said last week that developing countries should have bigger representation in international governing bodies such as the IMF because their contribution to the world economy has increased significantly.

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. will lead the Philippine delegation to the IMF meetings.

The IMF, which has a membership of 186 countries, believes that global recovery is underway but is likely to be slow.

It said that countries should remain cautious and continue to keep their stimulus interventions in place.

Given the fragility of the recovery, the Washington-based Fund warned that “policymakers should err on the side of caution as they decide when to exit from their crisis response policies.”