Agency's new managing director aims for more balanced approach

WASHINGTON - Christine Lagarde went through 18 hours of briefing on her first day as the first female managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since its creation in 1944.

More briefings followed. And she will undergo ethics training, as her contract requires.

During her first meeting with the media at the IMF headquarters in Washington on Wednesday, she said she will chair the first board meeting on Friday.

Squeezed in between her busy work agenda are more than 200 media interview requests.

"And they keep coming," Bill Murray, chief of IMF media relations, told China Daily.

Taking the reins of the IMF has arguably made Lagarde the most powerful woman in the world.

However, she has a challenging work agenda before her. The 187-member organization is entrusted to foster global growth and economic stability.

Nearly three years after the financial crisis, "recovery has taken its course", she said, acknowledging that recovery has been uneven.

There are still enormous uncertainties. These include the debt crisis "that concerns all advanced economies, ranging from Japan to the United States", she said, even though the IMF would focus on the eurozone, especially nations such as Greece.

"Without anticipating what will be discussed for the board scheduled on Friday, I would like to say simply that I hope the Greek political parties can be rightly inspired by the decisions - the courageous decisions made by political parties in Ireland, the courageous decisions made by political parties in Portugal," she said.

Meanwhile, some emerging economies see their markets sizzling while rising inflation threatens people's livelihoods in low-income countries, she said.

She said under her management, the IMF will focus on connections, credibility and comprehensiveness.

She highlighted the importance of attending to "the connections between countries, the fact that one particular policy will have ripple effects and consequences outside its territories" and to "make sure that our services and our advice are actually properly including that particular aspect".

As for credibility, she said: "For the IMF to be credible (in) its analysis, its work needs to be candid, needs to be credible, needs to be evenhanded. There is no one category of country that deserves special treatment, and another one that will receive harsh treatment."

By "comprehensiveness", she meant that the IMF will not only look at a country's finances - the traditional standard criteria - but also employment, social affairs and peripheral components.

Lagarde's appointment has aroused both praise and criticism.

"She brings many firsts," John Lipsky, the IMF's first deputy managing director, said at the news conference.

"She is to my mind a woman of firsts, with great experience leading a large international organization, experience in both the private and public sectors. The staff is very welcoming and very enthusiastic about the leadership that Christine Lagarde is going to bring the IMF."

Despite questions whether she has - or does not have - enough qualifications, Lagarde has taken up her new job with confidence and ease.

"I am more team-minded," she said. "My management style is about opening up, reaching out, engaging people and working as a team. I can't do it alone; they can't do it alone. We have to pull the institution together.

"I've come to this job with an open mind, with my ability to draw resources and willingness to contribute from all. I am going to rely on the advice of people who know well their area," she said. "Not all conductors know how to play the piano, the harp, the violin, or the cello. So I will try to be a good conductor."

China Daily