Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham has been selected to chair the boards of governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group (WBG).
The announcement was made recently in Washington at a plenary session of the 2010 Annual Meetings.
As the chair of the 2011 meetings, Ingraham will be a primary channel of the communication between the executives and the institutions and shareholder countries.
In addition to chairing the board of governors, he will also chair a standing committee known as the Joint Committee on the Remuneration of Executive Directors and the Alternates. This committee addresses sensitive issues concerning the compensation and benefits of executive directors and their alternatives.
Ingraham will also chair the Joint Procedures Committee, which is responsible for finalizing the preparations for annual meetings, including matters like setting agenda items and resolutions to be voted on, for example.
The Bahamaian prime minister’s chairmanship comes at a critical time in the evolution of those meetings.
The post of chairman of the Board of Governors of the IMF and WBG rotates among the five main regions Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and the Western Hemisphere.