"EN UN CONCURSO PARA OCUPAR EL MÁXIMO CARGO EN EL FMI, UNO DE LOS PRINCIPALES CANDIDATOS PASA A SER UNO DE LOS MÁS CRÍTICO".
"Foto: JPG. "Trevor Manuel".
"JOHANNESBURGO: 24.05.2011."En un concurso para ocupar el máximo cargo en el Fondo Monetario Internacional, uno de los principales candidatos también pasa a ser uno de los más fuertes críticos de la institución".
"Trevor Manuel, el ex-ministro de Finanzas de Sudáfrica, tiene una reputación en el país por ser políticamente beligerante, y ha ganado admiradores en el extranjero como un abogado astuto para el mundo en desarrollo. Esa podría ser la combinación, sus fans dicen, que es necesario para dirigir el FMI a través de un momento de confusión, manteniendo el apoyo entre las economías emergentes".
"Como ministro de Hacienda, que tiene unos presupuestos equilibrados, los bancos regulados y tratar las crisis financieras, es una elección natural para el FMI", dijo Kenneth S. Rogoff, profesor de economía en la Universidad de Harvard. Que el Sr. Manuel proviene de la mayor economía en el continente más pobre, también está en su favor, añadió".
"J. B. & P. W."In a contest to fill the top job at the International Monetary Fund, one of the leading candidates also happens to be one of the institution's strongest critics.
Trevor Manuel, the former South African finance minister, has a reputation at home for being politically pugnacious and has won admirers abroad as an astute advocate for the developing world. That could be the combination, his fans say, needed to lead the IMF through a time of turmoil, while retaining support among emerging economies.
"As a finance minister who has balanced budgets, regulated banks and dealt with financial crises, he is a natural choice for the IMF," says Kenneth S. Rogoff, an economics professor at Harvard University. That Mr. Manuel comes from the largest economy on the poorest continent also is in his favor, he added.
"South Africa's Finance Minister Trevor Manuel".
"Making his first public comments Monday on the IMF's vacancy, Mr. Manuel declined to discuss his own candidacy. But he was characteristically blunt in his criticism of the fund, saying the "old order" of Western nation dominance in the global financial system "has to pass".
"You've seen a shift in the center of gravity in the world's economy towards developing countries. We used to owe the G-7 money. Now they owe the developing world money," Mr. Manuel said, speaking after a climate-change conference here".
"His comments come as some emerging-market countries attempt to sway who becomes the next IMF managing director. The post was left vacant after Dominique Strauss-Kahn last week resigned in the face of sexual-assault charges".
"The IMF has requested that its 187 member states send in nominations for candidates before June 10, after which a shortlist will be issued. The organization hopes to fill the post by June 30".
"European officials appear to have swung support behind French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde. If appointed, she would be the fifth French citizen to take up the post since the IMF's founding in 1945".
"Unlike Europe, emerging economies, such as China and India, have not yet rallied behind a candidate. Russia has expressed its support for Kazakhstan's central bank governor, Grigoriy Marchenk, and Brazil has said it would consider a European candidate".
"In his remarks Monday, Mr. Manuel urged developing countries to unite quickly behind their choice for the post or risk ceding it to European members. "For any candidate it's fundamentally important to do what the Europeans are doing, to grow a critical mass of support," said the 55-year-old South African official, who now heads the National Planning Commission, a government think tank".
"Ultimately it's not what the press says," he added, playing down his candidacy for the IMF job. "It's not what my mother thinks I'm capable of doing".
"Born in Cape Town, Mr. Manuel was one of the founding members of the United Democratic Front, a multiracial coalition of churches, trade unions and civic organizations that protested against apartheid, a political system led by a white minority government that discriminated against people of color".
"During the 1980s Mr. Manuel was detained and arrested several times, and once went on a hunger strike, for the cause. He joined the African National Congress shortly after a ban on the party was lifted in 1990 and served as South Africa's post-apartheid finance minister, from 1996 to 2009".
"As finance minister, he transformed the country from an international pariah suffering under severe international sanctions to one of the most promising emerging markets. Mr. Manuel introduced budgetary reforms and encouraged privatization, a stance that caused him to butt heads with some of the ruling party's socialist-leaning cadres".
"Local economist Dawie Roodt, who has followed Mr. Manuel's financial policies from the beginning of his career, says he evolved from "a bit of a radical political animal" into "one of the best ministers of finance in the world".
"Yet Mr. Manuel's occasional public spats suggest the political animal is still very much alive".
"Earlier this year, he wrote an open letter to South Africa's government spokesperson, accusing him of the "worst order of racism" for his comments about there being "too many" people of color in Western Cape province—an apparent reference to the tendency of the area's mixed-race voters not to back the ruling ANC. Mr. Manuel, who is from the same province, described himself as "coloured," or mixed race, in the letter to his colleague".
"The apparent temper outbursts are sometimes strategic," said the South African journalist Pippa Green, author of a biography on Mr. Manuel. The result, she said, was to put the issue of the treatment of colored people "absolutely in the middle of the ANC and the country's agenda".
"Mr. Manuel may be ready to move on from his position within South Africa's government, some say. His current role as head of the National Planning Commission, housed within the South African presidency, sees him far less involved in the country's development than he was previously".
"I get an impression there are people who want to kick him upstairs," says Saki Macozoma, chairman of Liberty Holdings, a South African investment group and former official in the ANC".
"Mr. Manuel has frequently waded into IMF and World Bank matters. He recently led a team of experts in a review of the IMF's governance structure, and came out with critical report suggesting changes to the fund's decision-making".
"On Monday, he revisited those criticisms, lashing out at the practice of appointing Europeans to the position of managing director, and Americans to the position of president of the World Bank. Mr. Manuel called it "wrong" to have a recruitment system "where birthright is more important than ability".
Comentarios