Global Policy Forum

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged industrialised countries to open up their markets to developing countries "to make globalisation work for all." The managing director of the Fund, Mr. Horst Kohler, said in an address to the Board of Governors' meeting in Prague on Tuesday, that it was in their own interest and the interest of the global economy that the industrialised nations "take a strong lead in opening their markets."

He noted that while the developing countries had embraced the challenge of open market trade, notwithstanding the severe strains and hardships, the industrialised nations had not developed any sense of urgency to deliver their part. The managing director stressed that greater access to industrialised countries' markets was the key in the fight against poverty, noting that estimates of the potential welfare gains for developing countries from a 50 per cent world-wide reductions in barriers to trade had exceeded $100 billion per year.

"I am convinced that if the willingness of the developing and emerging market countries to tackle their home-made problems would be combined with more determination in the industrial countries to reform and open their markets, we will create an win-win situation for all," he said, adding that the UN's objective of eradicating poverty among half of the people by 2015 would be achievable. He commended the U.S for expanding its duty-free access to its markets for more than 70 countries in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean and welcomed the proposal by the European Union to fully open Europe's market to the 48 poorest countries.

Kohler said that under his chairmanship, the IMF would strive to promote sustained, non-inflationary economic growth that would benefit all people of the world. Acknowledging critical debates about globalisation and the IMF, the chairman said that the issues raised were of concern to all and stressed that "if the IMF did not exist already, this would be the time to invent it." He said that globalisation requires cooperation, emphasising that the IMF's 187 members had made it a truly global institution and its cooperative nature was an invaluable asset.

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