Seoul Forum Helps Heal IMF Wounds |
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July 12, 2010
SEOUL—A conference the South Korean government is co-hosting with the International Monetary Fund on Monday is designed to yield high-minded discussions and headlines about Asia's growing importance in the world economy.
SEOUL—A conference the South Korean government is co-hosting with the International Monetary Fund on Monday is designed to yield high-minded discussions and headlines about Asia's growing importance in the world economy.
It is also aimed at repairing the image of the multinational organization in a country where the assistance it provided 12 years ago remains controversial at best and vilified by many here despite its necessity then and its success since.
The IMF's help to Asian countries during the regional financial crisis of 1997 and 1998 gave it the image of a foreign taskmaster with little care for local customs, particularly if they interfered with conventional fiscal wisdom. The fund lent money to Thailand and Indonesia as well as to South Korea in the period.
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