TANAKA Akihiko

JICA President Akihiko Tanaka, left, and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde

JICA President Akihiko Tanaka and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde met Sept. 12 at the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) Meeting Hall in Tokyo, where they discussed inclusive growth in low-income Asian countries.

In the talks, they also discussed the macroeconomic situation in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, including debt sustainability. They agreed to maintain close communication on practical-level work. They also reaffirmed the importance of the IMF's (*) financial support and policy recommendations for macroeconomic management of developing countries.

Regarding the Third IMF-JICA Joint Conference planned for February 2015 in Tokyo, they agreed on the theme of reaffirming the importance of inclusive growth in low-income Asian countries, consistent with the other conferences in the series, which began in 2011. They also agreed that there should be substantive preparation so that the conference will produce significant results.

Japan is the second-largest shareholder in the IMF, after the United States, and it is also second in terms of voting power within that body.

There was also an explanation of new training programs that use information and communication technology, such as macroeconomic and debt sustainability analysis, which the IMF established for developing country policymakers.

JICA will continue to strengthen its cooperative relationship with the IMF, which is carrying out an important role in macroeconomic management, a prerequisite for inclusive growth and poverty reduction in developing countries.


*International Monetary Fund. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., it is engaged in promoting cooperation related to the stability of international finance. Its main work involves surveillance (observing policies in various countries for the stability of the international monetary system and the prevention of crises, and providing policy advice including on the economic outlook), lending, and technical assistance. It has 188 member countries.