Colombo:

Poorer nations need to have a greater voice in the management of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, India’s finance minister said today during a meeting of finance ministers from the Commonwealth. Rising global oil prices, plans to write off loans to highly indebted poor countries and ways to reduce poverty are also the focus of the three-day conference that opened yesterday. The conference precedes the annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank in Singapore next week, and key decisions made by the Commonwealth ministers will have a bearing on that gathering. Indian finance minister said the structures of the IMF and the World Bank must be changed to reflect the growing economic strength of developing nations.