The IMF and World Bank yesterday gathered in Morocco for their first annual meetings on African soil in 50 years, under pressure to reform to better aid poor nations blighted by debt and climate change.
The IMF and World Bank traditionally hold their annual gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors outside their Washington headquarters triennially.
They last held their meetings in Africa in 1973, when Kenya hosted the event and while some nations were still under colonial rule.
Photo: Reuters
Half a century later, the continent faces an array of challenges ranging from conflict to a series of military coups to unrelenting poverty to natural disasters.
“A prosperous world economy in the 21st century requires a prosperous Africa,” IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said in a speech in Abidjan last week.
In a symbolic move, the IMF and World Bank are poised to give Africa a third seat on their executive boards, which Georgieva said would give the continent a “stronger voice.”
Yet the thorniest issues revolve around money.
The main contributors are not in favor of a capital increase, as it would force them to put up more funds and would give emerging powers such as China and India greater influence.
However, the World Bank is expected to confirm plans to boost lending by US$50 billion over the next decade through balance sheet changes.
World Bank president Ajay Banga wants to go further and raise capacity by US$100 billion or as much as US$125 billion through contributions from advanced economies, but the issue is unlikely to be finalized in Marrakesh.
The global lenders might use the meetings to reform their quota systems. The quotas, which are based on a country’s economic performance, determine how much funding they should provide to the IMF, their voting power and the maximum amount of loans they can obtain.
Activists plan to hold a march in Marrakesh to urge the US-based institutions to take bold steps against climate change and debt.
Non-governmental organizations say that the austerity-driven solutions offered by the IMF and World Bank are only widening the gap between the rich and the poor in the developing world.
Campaigners, including Oxfam International, say global lenders should focus instead on canceling the debts of the poorest nations and imposing taxes on the rich.
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
RSS