Tue, June 21, 2011
WASHINGTON, June 20 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) began interviews Monday with candidates to run for managing director of the 187-member organization.
Mexico's Central Bank Governor Agustin Carstens and his rival, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde will meet the IMF's Executive Board this week, an IMF spokesperson told Xinhua.
"The next step in the process for the new managing director is now underway," said the IMF. "Both candidates, Mr. Agustin Carstens and Ms. Christine Lagarde, will be meeting the Executive Board this week."
According to the IMF, Carstens is visiting the Fund on June 20- 21, and will meet with the board on June 21. Lagarde is visiting on June 22-23, and will meet with the board on June 23.
During their visits, both candidates will also meet bilaterally with the executive board -- 24 directors representing individual countries or groups of countries of the fund.
The Board is scheduled to meet on June 28 to discuss the strengths of each candidate, with the aim of completing the selection process by June 30, said the IMF.
Carstens and Lagarde made the IMF's short list of candidates to succeed Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned on May 18 to face sexual assault charges in New York.
The IMF said earlier that it intends to select his successor " by consensus," and if that fails, by vote, by the end of the month.
