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Camdessus calls for financial architecture reform

BANGKOK: International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Michel Camdessus on Sunday targeted poverty as "the greatest concern of our time" and called for a major overhaul of the international financial architecture.

In his last major speech of his tenure as IMF chief, Camdessus said a "new economic paradigm" was emerging where leaders realised trade must go hand-in-hand with development.

"The greatest concern of our time is poverty ... it is the ultimate systemic threat facing humanity," he said.

"The widening gaps between rish and poor within nations, and the gulf between the most affluent and most impoverished nations are morally outrageous, economically wasteful and potentially socially explosive."

Addressing concerns that the developing world had been given a raw deal in the process of reforming trade, he said that globalisation was the best means of "improving the human condition throughout the world."

"I detect a vigorous cal for common action to transform globalisation into an effective instrument for development," he said.

But the IMF chief said that although a new dynamic was emerging, progress was slow and had led to frustration among those most marginalised by the new world economy.

This was understandable because advocates of gloablisation have "not yet demonstrated that it is concerned enough or capable of overcoming the greatest concern of our times."

Camdessus said the global financial architecture must be revamped to better serve the needs of the developing world.

"We must provide the world with institutions adapted to these challenges," he said.

"This will be necessary also if we are sensitive to the so frequently expressed fear that the treasure of local cultures and traditions are at risk of being overwhelmed by the strongest."

He suggeste that the G8 summit every two years be replaced by a broader forum of about 30 countries which would be more representative of the IMF and World Bank membership.

A lone anti-globalisation protester managed to thrrow a cream pie at Camdessus on his way into the conference hall to deliver his speech.

The mass landed on the IMF chief's face and he retreated to a corner of the room to clean himself up, while the demonstrator fled the scene and was later apprehended by security personnel. AFP