Developing countries gain some power in IMF

Many years, the developing countries complained of their underrepresentation in this financial watchdog of the world: with more than eighty percent of the world population they had only over thirty percent of the votes. The voting power of a country depends on his economic weight, but the calculation is little transparent.
As more developing countries became more important on economic field, the tension increased. An attitude where Belgium has more votes than India – which has hunderd times more inhabitants – became more and more incredible. The developing countries threatened to turn away from the Fund. This convinced the developed countries, especially the little European countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands, to hand in votes. Therefor, the contribution of votes of Belgium drops from 2,01 percent to 1,86 percent. Still, the IMF is the institution where Belgium has relatively the most votes.
This is only the beginning for developing countries; the rich countries hope that the discussion about reforms stops for a while. In the World Bank, there is still no agreement on a redistribution of the votes. The rich countries want their contribution to the soft loans, the International Development Association (IDA), to be adjusted in their voting power.
‘The IMF-solution points out the direction but will not be followed in the same way’, says Gino Alzetta, the Belgian director in the board of management of the World Bank. China contributed to the IDA for the first time, but only the modest amount of five million dollar. The country is member of the Asian, African and  soon of the Inter-American bank of development and is gradually integrated in the international fincancial institutions. Only in the Club of Paris, where the rich countries decide about the letting off of debts, this goes less smooth: China hesitates to submit his freedom concerning the letting off of debts for agreements with club members. (jvd)

Voting power in the IMF:
                                     Early 2006                  After the recent reform
Rich countries                   60,57 %                           57,93 %
Countries in transition         7,09 %                              6,82 %
Developing countries         31,70 %                             34,49 %
of whom
emerging countries            23,88 %                            25,64 %
low income countries           8,45 %                             9,61 %