News Brief No. 02/16

News Brief: IMF Managing Director Names Anoop Singh Director for Special Operations

February 25, 2002

Horst Köhler, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), announced today the appointment of Mr. Anoop Singh as Director for Special Operations, a newly created position within the IMF.

"This initiative will enhance the ability of the Fund to respond to critical situations affecting its member countries. The IMF's considerable experience in managing such situations is at present diffused across departments. A key function of the new Director will be to bring together this experience so that it is directly supportive of area departments' work in critical situations," Mr. Köhler stated.

Mr. Singh will immediately assume leadership for the IMF staff team that is working with the Argentine authorities, working in close coordination with the Western Hemisphere Department as well as other departments of the Fund. "I am confident," the Managing Director stated, "that this decision will strengthen the Fund's ongoing effort to help Argentina in formulating a comprehensive program to overcome its severe economic and social crisis."

Mr. Singh is expected in the months ahead to make recommendations about enhancing the Fund's capacity in managing critical country situations, based on consultations with the IMF's area departments and the Policy Development and Review Department.

Mr. Singh, an Indian national, will transfer from his current position of Deputy Director of the Asia and Pacific Department to the Office of the Managing Director and report to First Deputy Managing Director Anne Krueger. He has held a range of senior positions within the IMF, including in the Policy Development and Review Department and the European Department. Mr. Singh has also headed Fund missions to Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, and Thailand.

In the early 1980s, Mr. Singh served as Special Advisor to the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. In the late 1980s, on secondment from the IMF, he was Senior Advisor to the World Bank's vice president for the Asia region.