China once again urged the United States to ratify the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s 2010 quota and governance reform plan, which will grant emerging countries greater say in the institution, as soon as possible.
According to media reports, the U.S. congress included the ratification into a spending bill that was agreed on by the two parties late Tuesday and is expected to pass both chambers of Congress by the end of the week.
"China takes note of relevant reports. It has been five years since the G20 leaders agreed on the IMF quota and governance reform plan. The international community has expected the early implementation of the reform plan," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said at daily press briefing.
"We hope the related country can ratify the reform plan as soon as possible, as this is of importance to preserve the credibility and legitimacy of the IMF as well as the stability of the international economic and financial system," Hong said.
Chin hopes the reform on the international financial system can forge ahead on the basis of the quota reform, the spokesperson added.
In late 2010, the IMF agreed to a reform package that included a doubling of IMF quotas, a shift in quotas to dynamic emerging markets and under-represented countries and a proposed amendment to reform the executive board to make it more representative.
Once in effect, the reforms will increase the quotas and the voting shares of the developing world by 6.2 percent and 5.8 percent respectively, and add two more emerging countries to the fund's executive board.
Currently, a total of 144 nations have already ratified the reforms, including Britain, France, the Republic of Korea and Japan.
In a communique issued in November after the G20 summit in Antalya, Turkey, the G20 leaders said they are "deeply disappointed" with the continued delay in carrying out the 2010 quota reforms. They urged the United States, which holds the largest share of votes in the IMF, to ratify these reforms as soon as possible.
