Shanmugaratnam in short list of possible IMF successors

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 May 2011, 22:08 GMT]
Increasing the profile of Ealam Tamils who have received international recognition, BBC has listed recently appointed as Deputy Prime Minister holding Finance, Manpower and Monetary Authority portfolios, in the Government of Singapore, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, as one of the top nine leading candidates to head the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The position became vacant after Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned so he could fight sexual assault charges.

"The 54-year-old [Shanmugaratnam] has been the country's [Singapore's] finance minister since 2007 and on Wednesday added the new job of deputy prime minister. With degrees from the London School of Economics and Harvard, he recently became the first Asian to hold the post of chairman of the IMF's policy advisory committee," the BBC said of Shanmugaratnam in a short profile of the leading candidates.

Shanmugaratnam's family has origins in Urelu, Jaffna.

While U.K. is likely to propose Christine Lagarde, French finance minister, France, to head the IMF, the short list of candidates include:

Peer Steinbrueck, Former German finance minister, Germany
Axel Weber, Former head of Bundesbank, Germany
Kemal Dervis, Former economy minister, Turkey
Trevor Manuel, Ex Finance minister, South Africa
Agustin Carstens, Governor Bank of Mexico, Mexico
Gordon Brown, Former UK Prime Minister, British
Montek Singh Ahluwlia, Economic adviser to India's PM, India

Traditionally the head of the IMF comes from Europe, with America providing the boss of its sister organisation - the World Bank, BBC said. Mr Strauss-Kahn was the fourth Frenchman to have held the IMF's top job.

But emerging new powers have also called for a non-European to be appointed to the IMF post.

Chronology:


External Links:

BBC:

Osborne backs Christine Lagarde to lead IMF