JAKARTA – The IMF on Wednesday said it had learnt from its mistakes during the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis and had undertaken reform to give the region’s countries a greater say in how the Fund is managed. IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the organisation wanted a fresh start with Asia as he visited Indonesia and met President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Indonesia was hit hard by the Asian crisis and the IMF remains deeply unpopular in the country of 240 million people for its tough package of austerity measures designed to pull the economy out of bankruptcy. “The main message today is simple. We have to look forward. The IMF has changed,” Strauss-Kahn told reporters.
“You have in front on you a new IMF where there’s voting power and the voice of Asian countries has increased a lot. “The last reform we made in governance changed the IMF to reflect better the state of the world and in the new state of the world, Asia in general, Indonesia in particular, has a bigger role than in the past.”
