South Africa will call for developing countries to be given greater weight in the governance of the IMF, but Mr Manuel also called for the creation of a new executive body in which ministers and central bankers would have greater powers, a change he calls pivotal. It is rather strange that high-powered central bankers and government ministers are convened simply to advise civil servants, he said.
The new arrangement, he said, would mean discussions would not be as entrenched as happens in the fund's boardroom right now. Despite protestations that there is change, the IMF is a one- size-fits-all organisation.
The call is part of a wider South African programme to revive multilateralism, made especially urgent by worrying signs of nationalism. When G20 leaders met in Washington in November they took a strong position against nationalism and protectionism and made strong calls in favour of more open trade. But this hasn't happened.
Some of the participants [at the past G20] have called for the companies to pull out of eastern Europe to support the situation at home, said Mr Manuel. There are banks that have indicated that they won't lend outside their own shores if they have any governmental support.
His concerns reflected a more general unease about European unity. The danger of implosion in eastern Europe would be the elephant in the room at the summit, distracting attention from other developments, such as Africa's economic difficulties. In spite of falling commodity prices and lower growth, Africa can drop off the agenda.
Mr Manuel said that with the US looking for up to $3,000bn to finance its fiscal deficit, fewer resources would be available for the developing world.
Jakaya Kikwete, Tanzania's president, expressed Africa's determination to speak for itself at the G20 meeting, while welcoming an offer from the IMF to help ensure its needs are not ignored.
Two days after Dominique Strauss-Kahn, IMF managing director, told a conference on the global economic crisis in Dar es Salaam he could be Africa's voice at next month's G20 summit, Mr Kikwete told the FT: Of course that's OK with us.
Mr Strauss-Kahn and African policymakers declared their intent to build a stronger partnership based on more financing, greater flexibility and reforms to IMF governance to enhance Africa's say.
Mr Kikwete won a round of applause when he told the conference this week: If an African country was responsible for the current financial crisis the IMF would have jumped on us without invitation, with conditionality, road maps and benchmarks.
The Financial Times
Post published in: Economy