BANGKOK, 23 May 2011 – Japanese and Hong Kong media are cheering Thai Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij to take the helm of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) replacing Mr Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
The Japan Times of Japan and the South China Morning Post of Hong Kong recently proposed several figures to replace Mr Strauss-Kahn who has recently resigned. Mr Korn’s name appears among the candidates proposed by the two famous foreign newspapers for his deep understanding in the financial market.
Other candidates nominated by the two newspapers included Egyptian Dr Mohamed A El-Erian, Indian Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Singaporean Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
Mr Korn recently supported ASEAN economists to be the next IMF managing director since economies of developing nations, especially in the ASEAN region, are growing. He then named Mr Shanmugaratnam and Indonesian Sri Mulyani Indrawati as possible candidates.
The minister added that the old tradition to focus only on European and American candidates should be forgotten in order to give economists from other regions a chance to sit in the high positions of global organizations.
