WORLD
10 | Wednesday, August 7, 2019 CHINA DAILY
By CHEN WEIHUA in Brussels
[email protected]
The European Union has decid-
ed to put forward World Bank offi-
cial Kristalina Georgieva as their
candidate to replace Christine
Lagarde as head of the Washing-
ton-based International Monetary
Fund. But the move has raised
doubts about the European domi-
nation of the organization that fos-
ters global financial stability.
The EU’s nomination of Georgie-
va, a Bulgarian economist, came aft-
er two days of negotiations and two
rounds of contested votes in a selec-
tion process led by French Finance
Minister Bruno Le Maire. Other
candidates include former Dutch
finance minister Jeroen Dijsselblo-
em, Portuguese Finance Minister
Mario Centeno, Bank of Finland
Governor Olli Rehn and Spanish
economy minister Nadia Calvino.
If approved by IMF’s board in
October, Georgieva would be the
first East European to head the
organization. All 11 IMF chiefs
since 1946 have been West Europe-
ans. Under an informal agreement
between Europe and the United
States, the World Bank is headed
by a US citizen and the IMF by a
European. Together, they control
46 percent of the IMF vote.
“Ms Georgieva certainly has
strong credentials in the world of
international finance and is likely
to do a competent job managing
the economic and political challen-
ges the IMF faces,” Eswar Prasad, a
professor at Cornell University and
a former chief of IMF’s China Divi-
sion, told China Daily on Monday.
EU pushes Bulgarian
for top job at IMF
But move has raised doubts about
European domination of governance
day, Giugliano argued that the
world economy is changing as
Europe’s share of global income
continues to fall. “At a fraught
moment for international politics
and economics, the IMF needs the
best possible head regardless of
where she or he comes from. A
selection based truly on merit is far
better than an anachronistic Amer-
ica-European stitch-up,” he wrote.
Writing in The Guardian news-
paper on Monday, Amanda Khozi
Mukwashi, chief executive of
Christian Aid, a relief and develop-
ment agency in UK and Ireland,
said that the new IMF chief should
not be chosen by Europe alone.
“As the world becomes ever more
politically polarized and vulnerable
to populist leadership, and as the US
turns away from multilateralism
and takes a skeptical approach on
the climate crisis, there is all the
more reason for these major institu-
tions — which are so keen to boast of
their globalist credentials — to take
an inclusive, merit-based approach
to what ought to be a diversified
recruitment process,” she wrote.
“The coming window for new
leadership is an opportunity for the
IMF to demonstrate a different
model that is democratic and —
crucially — inclusive of candidates
from the global south. IMF, like the
World Bank, needs to modernize,
or it is in danger of outliving its use-
fulness to the world,” she said.
The European Commission does
not have a formal role in the selec-
tion of an IMF chief, but spokeswom-
an Mina Andreeva said at a news
conference in Brussels on Friday:
“We do support the nomination of a
European candidate, who can make
an effective contribution to the IMF’s
global mission of maintaining the
stability of international economy.”“However, the
process of her
nomination,
which was
orchestrated by a
set of advanced
European coun-
tries, still reeks of
a global govern-
ance system that
is dominated by
advanced econo-
mies who put
their interests first.”
Prasad said the outcome points to
the lack of unity among emerging
market economies, whose compet-
ing interests and lack of cooperation
have yet again prevented them from
mounting a cohesive challenge to
the existing international order.
The IMF board of directors would
need to change its rules to let Georgi-
eva succeed Lagarde, who resigned
last month to take the job as presi-
dent of the European Central Bank.
Managing directors are now
required to take office before turning
65; Georgieva will turn 66 on Aug 13.
Ferdinando Giugliano, an editori-
al board member of Financial Times,
wrote on Monday on his Twitter that
Georgieva “is a strong contender to
head the IMF, but Europe has no
divine right to this post”.
“There should be other candidates
— from Mark Carney to Tharman
Shanmugaratnam — and the IMF
board should simply pick the best.”
Carney is the governor of Bank of
England and holds Canadian, Brit-
ish and Irish citizenships while
Shanmugaratnam is chairman of
Monetary Authority of Singapore.
In a Bloomberg column on Mon-Kristalina
GeorgievaTitanic shipyard set to go bankrupt
BELFAST, Northern Ireland —
The iconic Belfast shipyard Harland
and Wolff, which built the Titanic ,
headed toward bankruptcy on Mon-
day as its workers vowed to continue
a weeklong occupation of the site.
The company is set to file for
insolvency on Tuesday at the High
Court in Belfast, with accounting
firm BDO appointed administra-
tors, according to reports.
The moves came after Dolphin
Drilling, the Norwegian parent of
Harland and Wolff which filed for
bankruptcy in June, failed to find a
buyer for the giant of Northern Ire-
land’s industrial past.
The shipbuilder, whose huge yel-
low cranes have towered over the
Belfast skyline for decades,
employed more than 30,000 people
in the early 20th century but now
has only 130 workers.A group of workers that has protest-
ed at the shipyard every day for the
past week voted on Monday to contin-
ue their occupation of the site, calling
on the government to intervene.
They emerged from a meeting
chanting “save our shipyard” before
confirming the outcome of the vote.
“The workforce have told us they
wish to continue with the occupa-
tion of this plant until such times as
we find a way to continue shipbuild-
ing and heavy industry in Belfast,”
Joe Passmore, a steelworker and
union representative, said.
John McDonnell, finance spokes-
man for the main opposition
Labour Party in Westminster, visit-
ed the shipyard site and claimed the
United Kingdom’s Prime Minister
Boris Johnson had failed the work-
ers in his first real test since taking
power last month.“We know this is a viable concern,
we know the government has naval
contracts it can put here to ensure
the long-term future,” he said.
However, a British government
spokesperson said Northern Ireland
Secretary Julian Smith had held
stakeholder meetings since taking
up the role last month but no “viable”
options for the shipyard’s future had
emerged. “He is speaking to partners
... on the next steps to help those
affected,” the spokesperson added.
As well as building the doomed
Titanic , which sank in 1912, Harland
and Wolff supplied almost 150 war-
ships during World War II.
It has since moved away from
shipbuilding and was until recently
working mostly on wind energy and
marine engineering projects.AGENCIESNEC Corp’s flying machine hovers at the company’s facility in Abiko near Tokyo, on Monday. The Japa-
nese electronics producer made the “flying car”, a large drone-like machine with four propellers that
hovered steadily for about a minute. KOJI SASAHARA / ASSOCIATED PRESSFlying car