China welcomes Zhu Min's IMF appointment

Beijing on Thursday welcomed the appointment of Chinese economist Zhu Min to a new deputy managing director's position with the International Monetary Fund and called for more such reforms. China's foreign ministry said Zhu's hiring showed the IMF had taken big strides to better represent emerging markets among the IMF's board and management. "We think this has demonstrated the major progress made by the IMF in increasing the representativeness of emerging market economies and developing countries," said foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei. "We hope the IMF will further push ahead with reforms so as to make bigger progress." Zhu, 58, was one of the first appointments made by new IMF managing director Christine Lagarde, who last week promised a greater role for the world's large emerging economies at the top of the organisation. While the new deputy managing director position was created with an emerging economy representative in mind, it was widely expected that someone from China, the world's second-largest economy, would fill the post. His hiring is likely to assuage complaints that the IMF's management team is overly dominated by the old and mature economies -- the United States, Europe and Japan. The IMF is already implementing a plan to increase the influence of the largest emerging economies on the board -- particularly China, India, Brazil, Russia, and South Africa. Lagarde has pledged to follow through with that plan, even though it will mean a reduction of the powerful voting power held by her European backers. Announcing Zhu's appointment, Lagarde said the former Chinese central banker "brings a wealth of experience in government, international policy making and financial markets, strong managerial and communication skills." "He will play an important role in working with me and the rest of my management team in meeting the challenges facing our global membership in the period ahead, and in strengthening the Fund's understanding of Asia and emerging markets more generally," she added. Zhu had been a special adviser to the IMF managing director since 2010. Before that he was a deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, and previously served in various positions at the Bank of China. The economist also worked six years at the World Bank, and has taught at Fudan University in China and Johns Hopkins in the United States.