Pranab to hold Chair at G-24 2nd time

Pranab Mukherjee will be the first person to hold twice the Chair at G-24 nations.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will be the first person to hold twice the Chair at G-24 nations,an inter-governmental group on international monetary affairs and development.

He will hold the Chair for 2011-12 as he has been elected the second vice chair for the current fiscal at a meeting held in Istanbul,ahead of IMF-World Bank meeting. He will be the First Vice Chair the next year.

Mukherjee held the position over 25 years ago in 1982-84 when he was the finance minister in Indira Gandhi’s Cabinet.

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An elected country takes up the Second Vice Chair for the first 12 months,becomes First Vice Chair the following year and assumes the Chair a year later.

Syria is the Chair now,Brazil the first vice-chair and South Africa the second vice-chair,an official statement said here.

The G-24 was established in 1971 with an objective of strengthening the position of developing countries on monetary and development finance issues. It operates at two levels– the political level of Ministers of Finance and central bank governors and the level of officials designated as deputies.

The group comprises countries from three regions– Africa,Latin America and the Caribbean,and Asia. India,Iran,Lebanon,Pakistan,the Philippines,Sri Lanka and Syrian Arab Republic are members from the Asian region.