[NYTr] Venezuela Skips WB-IMF Meeting; Brazil Attends and Blasts the "Dinosaur"
 
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 02:10:57 -0500 (CDT)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Reuters via Yahoo - Oct 21, 2007
http://in.news.yahoo.com/071021/137/6m7g7.html

Venezuela to skip IMF, World Bank meetings

CARACAS - Venezuela will not attend the upcoming meetings of the
International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which leftist President
Hugo Chavez accuses of being pawns of Washington, the Finance Ministry
said on Saturday.

Chavez earlier this year promised to withdraw the OPEC country from the
IMF, but later backed away when government leaders became aware the
move could affect billions of dollars in Venezuelan foreign debt.

Finance Minister Rodrigo Cabezas will travel to Washington on Sunday to
make presentations promoting the Bank of the South, a lender Chavez is
creating as a counterweight to the Washington-based multilaterals.

"These activities will be carried out by ... Rodrigo Cabezas and the
team that accompanies him, in parallel to the 2007 Annual Meetings of
the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which Venezuela
will not attend," the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

Chavez frequently slams both multilateral agencies as working to
advance U.S. business interests by pressing free-trade agreements and
structural adjustment packages on developing countries.

The leader of a self-styled socialist revolution, Chavez has tapped
into discontent with the IMF in Latin America that grew markedly after
the 2001 collapse of Argentina's economy that many in the region blamed
on the global lender.

Critics say Chavez is squandering billions of dollars in windfall oil
revenue through massive government spending they say has not reduced
the country's reliance on crude.

                                  ***

Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com

Brazil Criticizes IMF-WB Joint Meeting

Washington, Oct 22 (Prensa Latina) The Brazilian Treasury Minister
Guido Mantega said Monday the International Monetary Fund proposal to
redistribute 10 percent of participation in the institution for the
developing countries it is not ideal.

Mentega, who participates in this capital, in the biannual IMF-World
Bank joint meeting, said the intentions of the credit authority seem
good, but they do not fulfil the needs of the organization's developing
member countries.

"The dinosaur moved", Mantega pointed out after participating in one of
the last working sessions of the two banking institutions.

The minister that will assume the Group of the 20 presidency in South
Africa, in November, met on Monday the new IMF Managerial Director
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, from France.

Mantega pointed out that the European countries are those offering more
resistance to changes in the IMF structure to give more power to the
emergent nations. The Europeans have eight seats of the 24 of the IMF
Directive Council.

iom tac acl rcg

PL-40

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