By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters), Kristalina Georgieva (Managing Director, International Monetary Fund) said on Wednesday that she expected advanced economies to achieve their goal of shifting $100Billion of $650B in new emergency reserves to countries most in need.

Georgieva stated to journalists that she is encouraged by IMF’s new Resilience and Sustainability Trust. This would enable richer nations to lend or give their shares of the Special Drawing Rights for more countries than only the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust.

According to the IMF chief, the IMF is also working on transparency measures regarding the use of SDRs.

Georgieva stated that members supported the establishment of the RST trust in a fast four-hour meeting on Friday. IMF staff addressed questions regarding the criteria and financial arrangements, as well as the purpose of the trust.

“We are interested in being part of long-term solutions that policymakers have to address climate change, as well as beyond it,” she stated.

“We were encouraged to hear that this resonated across board and that some of our strong members started to indicate their desire to make a contribution to the new trust.

Georgieva responded to questions regarding concerns that some people had about the proposed trust’s overlap with the World Bank mandate.

Georgieva stated that the IMF presented the RST to its board first time to World Bank’s Board. A large World Bank team also participated in this presentation.

In a prepared statement for Thursday’s meeting at the International Monetary and Financial Committee (a steering committee for fund), Olaf Scholz, German Finance Minister, demanded a clear delineation of tasks among the fund and institutions such as the World Bank. He also stated that any new trust should be carefully designed in order to avoid unwanted consequences and drawbacks.

According to him, the trust “should not induce facility shopping or compromise members’ ability to repay regular fund programs.”

He also called for the use of multilateral banks’ financial involvement in order to maximize the impact on areas such as pandemic readiness and climate change, which he stated were largely within the bank’s remit.