Prime Minister Ingraham to chair IMF / World Bank Boards

WASHINGTON, DC – Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham has been selected to chair the Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group (WBG).

The announcement was made in Washington on Friday at a plenary session of the 2010 Annual Meetings.

As the chair of the 2011 meetings, Mr. Ingraham will be a primary channel of communication between the executives of the institutions and the shareholder countries.

In addition to chairing the Boards of Governors, Mr. Ingraham will also chair a standing committee known as the Joint Committee on the Remuneration of Executive Directors and their Alternates (JCR). This committee addresses sensitive issues concerning the compensation and benefits of Executive Directors and their Alternates.

Mr. Ingraham will also chair the Joint Procedures Committee (JPR), which is responsible for finalizing the preparations for annual meetings, including matters like setting agenda items and resolutions to be voted on, for example.

The chairmanship of the Boards of Governors (a group made up of the designated representatives of the shareholder countries) has as its primary function the job of chairing the Annual Meeting of the Fund and Bank Group. This is especially important because the format of these meetings is evolving. For example, this year for the first time, with the use of technology, members could access many of the speeches traditionally given at the plenary online if they wished.

The plan, it is understood, is for the plenary to become a more interactive meeting going forward, and Mr. Ingraham’s chairmanship comes at a critical time in the evolution of those meetings.

About The Post

The chairmanship of the Board of Governors of the IMF and the WBG rotates among the five main regions – Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and the Western Hemisphere.

According to some of the criteria given weight during the selection process, the new chairman’s country should be in good standing with the Fund and the Bank Group in terms of cooperation, participation and financial relations. The chairman’s country should also be in good standing in the international community, and the person selected to be chairman is expected to be widely respected among finance and development officials.

About The Annual Meetings

The Annual Meetings opened in Washington on Friday with a plenary session featuring remarks by Annual Meetings Chairman Olusegun Olutoyin Aganga (Segun), IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and World Bank President Robert Zoellick.

The Annual Meetings bring together central bankers, ministers of finance and development, private sector executives, and academics to discuss issues of global concern, including the world economic outlook, poverty eradication, economic development, and aid effectiveness.

This year, the Annual Meetings occured ahead of the meetings of the International Monetary and Financial Committee, the Development Committee, the Group of Ten, the Group of Twenty-Four, and various other groups of members. At the conclusion of their meetings, the International Monetary and Financial Committee and the Development Committee, as well as several other groups, issue communiqués.

At these meetings, the Boards of Governors make decisions on how current international monetary issues should be addressed and approve corresponding resolutions. The Annual Meetings are chaired by a Governor of the Bank and the Fund, with the chairmanship rotating among the membership each year. Every two years it elects Executive Directors. Each year any new members are welcomed into the Bank and Fund.