Asia keen on 'Mr Yen' as new IMF chief

Asia keen on 'Mr Yen' as new IMF chief

MANILA (Reuters): Japan's campaign to push former top
financial diplomat Eisuke Sakakibara as the next IMF chief is
being warmly received by other Asian nations eager to break the
West's dominance of world financial bodies, officials say.

In a rare show of Japanese diplomatic initiative, Prime
Minister Keizo Obuchi lobbied for Sakakibara -- known as "Mr Yen"
for his former sway over currency markets -- at a weekend meeting
of 13 Asian leaders in the Philippine capital and appeared to win
strong backing.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
threw its support behind Sakakibara, and South Korean President
Kim Dae-jung said Seoul would back the former vice finance
minister if he decided to run to succeed IMF Managing Director
Michel Camdessus.

Camdessus said earlier this month that he would be stepping
down in February after 13 years in the job and that his successor
need not necessarily be a European.

By convention, the United States chooses the head of the World
Bank and the IMF job is Western Europe's patch, and analysts said
Japan would have a tough task to win the post.

Sakakibara, speaking on television on Sunday, said he had not
been formally approached on the candidacy but that various
discussions were going on behind the scenes.

Japan has led a chorus of Asian criticism of the IMF's initial
handling of the financial crisis which hit the region from mid-
1997. Critics blamed the IMF for exacerbating the crisis with its
insistence on austere economic policies in return for financial
assistance.

One Japanese official said Asia's strong support for
Sakakibara's candidacy reflected its dissatisfaction with the
IMF. "It's very much linked to the criticism of the IMF that
emerged two years ago when the region was hit by the economic
crisis," said the official, who declined to be identified.

"We must change the view that by default the IMF managing
director should be a European," he added.

An ASEAN official echoed that sentiment and said Asia needed
to cooperate more closely or face continued dominance by the
West. "If we don't get our act together, they are going to walk
all over us economically," the official said.

The 13 Asian nations -- the ASEAN countries plus Japan, South
Korea and China -- on Sunday promised to strengthen economic and
political ties to help bring peace, stability and prosperity to
Asia.

Officials gathered in Manila said an Asian IMF chief might be
able to change policies which they see as dominated by the West,
in particular the United States.

"It would be nice if (a successful Sakakibara bid) could lead
to the reflection of non-Western voices in the IMF," one official
said.

The actual decision on who will succeed Camdessus will likely
be made by member governments seeking a consensus on a candidate
who satisfies developed as well as developing countries.

Germany was first and fastest off the starting blocks,
proposing Deputy Finance Minister Caio Koch-Weser for the
position, but other candidates remain in the running.

Sakakibara, now a professor at the prestigious Keio University
in Tokyo, won a reputation for plain speaking during his two-year
stint as vice finance minister for international affairs, from
which he stepped down in July.

He was a key mover behind Japan's 1997 proposal to set up an
Asian Monetary Fund to complement the IMF in helping the region
out of the crisis, a proposal which ran into a wall of resistance
from the United States and the Fund itself.