Tokyo to Host IMF-World Bank 2012 Meetings

Washington, June 6 (Jiji Press)--The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank will hold their 2012 annual meetings in Tokyo in October that year, the executive boards of the two institutions said Monday.
It will be the first time that Japan has hosted IMF-World Bank annual meetings in 48 years. Joint meetings were held in the Japanese capital in September 1964, the month before the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The forthcoming meetings will be a good opportunity for Japan to highlight its efforts of reconstruction after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
But there are concerns that Japan's trust in the international arena could be eroded if political turmoil drags on.
Speaking at a press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday, Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said he firmly believes that it will be meaningful for Japan to provide meeting participants with an opportunity to look firsthand at the country as it rebuild itself after the March 11 disaster.
It will be also significant that Japan demonstrates to the world its leadership as the host country.
Noda last month declared Japan's bid to bring the 2012 meetings of the two Washington-based institutions to Tokyo.
With no objections received by Monday from members of the IMF and the World Bank executive boards, Japan has effectively been picked as the host of the 2012 meetings.
Along with the IMF-World Bank meetings, a conference of finance ministers and central bank chiefs of the Group of 20 major advanced and merging economies may be held in Japan.
Noda said last month that more than 10,000 people usually visit the host country of such international meetings, expressing hopes for positive economic effects.
The IMF-World Bank annual meetings are held outside Washington every three years.
Although Egypt was originally to host the 2012 meetings, it has requested the two organizations to hold the meetings elsewhere due to political instability in the country.
According to an IMF source, some member countries initially expressed cautious opinions about holding the meetings in Japan. But in the event, members are believed to have given high marks to Japan's eagerness as it deals with disaster reconstruction.