(March 28) – Laying out his vision of the future of the International Monetary Fund, Horst Köhler, the new managing director, said today that rather than shrinking as some critics have suggested, the fund should expand its role as “a crucial cornerstone” of globalization,” writes Alan Cowell in today’s New York Times.

“His remarks, in one of the first interviews he has given since his appointment this month, came amid a welter of conflicting proposals for overhauling the I.M.F., one of the world’s important financial institutions, both in the United States Congress and the Clinton administration. The thrust of some of those arguments, notably in a report from a Congressional commission led by Allan H. Meltzer of Carnegie Mellon University, was that both the I.M.F. and its sister institution, the World Bank, should be radically pared back because they often do more harm than good in developing countries.

“Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence H. Summers has opposed some of the commission’s findings, and Mr. Köhler, a 57-year-old former high official in the German finance ministry, sought in the interview to avoid an impression that he and Mr. Summers were on a collision course.

“‘I do see a lot of commonality in the ideas expressed by Larry Summers,’ he said.
But in the 45-minute interview at his office at the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, where he will leave as president to join the I.M.F., Mr. Köhler made clear that his concept of reform would not limit the broad reach of I.M.F. influence that some critics want trimmed. ‘My own vision is, in rather broad terms, that the I.M.F. should be even more than in the past a crucial cornerstone to secure growth and stability in the world, or in the global economy,’ he said.

“‘Whatever we do with crisis management, aid to the developing countries, the most important thing to achieve is sustained growth in the world economy, and that’s not only in developed countries but really in the global economy including the developing countries and the emerging markets. That’s my most important thing.’ He acknowledged, however, that the huge capital flows that have come to be associated with globalization had implications both for the I.M.F.’s role as a lender and the relationship between its loans and those available on the international capital mark