WASHINGTON, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday urged the U.S. Congress to enact the agency 's 2010 quota and governance reform package in a timely manner, as the widely-scrutinized reform process was stalled amid the fiscal wrangling of American lawmakers.
"The U.S. authorities have told us that they intended to secure approval of the 2010 reforms, and we welcome that," IMF spokesman William Murray said at a regular press briefing here.
The IMF's Board of Governors approved the quota and governance reform package on Dec. 15, 2010. The package included a doubling of IMF quotas and a shift in quotas to dynamic emerging markets and under-represented countries, and a proposed amendment to reform the executive board that would facilitate the transition to a more representative and all-elected executive board.
The IMF previously intended to make the 2010 reform package effective before the 2012 Annual Meetings held in October last year, but the legislatures of some important IMF members including the United States, the IMF's largest shareholder, have not yet given the green light to the package.
The Washington-based global lender is "fully engaged" with all its members including the United States to implement the 2010 reform package as soon as possible. "We've had active discussions with all political parties and players in Washington as well," Murray told reporters.
Legislation of the U.S. Congress is needed to increase the U.S. quotas in the IMF by approximately 65 billion U.S. dollars and simultaneously reduce by an equal amount the U.S. participation in the New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB), a pool of fund supplementing the IMF quotas in case of crisis.
Due to the objection of some Republican lawmakers, a provision to complete the IMF reforms was not inserted in the two budget plans for the 2014 fiscal year starting on Oct. 1, proposed earlier this week by the U.S. Senate and House budget committees respectively, despite the Obama administration's efforts to get the green light from Congress.
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