Roles of Imf and World Bank

Q5)

International Monetary Fund (IMF) role is to stabilize the international exchange rates and promote liberal economic policies. IMF will also provide short-term loan to assist members to overcome short-term imbalance of payment problems. On the other hand, World Bank offers loans to members to finance productive investments as well as assisting developing countries in its economy so as to reduce poverty within the country. Singapore joins both IMF and World Bank under the Bretton Woods Agreements Acts in 1966, 3 August.

Before we join to become IMF as a member, during the Singapore-Malaya separation, we had sought for their technical assistance and to act as a broker in the negotiation with Malaysia for a common currency and banking system. In order to so, IMF first conducted a preliminary study to identify the concerns of Singapore and Malaysia regarding the common currency issue. IMF then acts as a broker in the final round of negotiations between 10 June 1966 and 5 July 1966.

Before joining World Bank as a member, Singapore had sought for 2 loans where the first loan of US$15 million was used for the construction of the first phase of the Pasir Panjang ‘B’ Power Station and the second loan of US$6.8 million was used to construct Johor River Water Project. As a pre-requisite for the loan, the World Bank then requested our government to set up statutory authority (Public Utilities Board [PUB]) to manage the utilization and repayment of the loan.

The advantages of Singapore joining as a member are being able to buy gold or other currencies from IMF instead of going for drastic monetary policies domestically when we face with imbalance of payments, being a member will enhance confidence in our monetary policies as it indicates that our government had agreed and will follow the fund’s practices on the face value of the Singapore currency and exchange controls. The other advantage include being able to seek for effective and objective assessment and...