Daily Archives: October 20, 2019

SEATTLE The first thing Chris Caculitan mentions, when asked how the Emerald City has changed in the years since he grew up here, is the tech companies. Theyre everywhere now.

Local media refer to the Pacific Northwest citys recent tech-fuelled economic boom as the second gold rush to hit town.

But that wealth hasnt lifted all boats, as Caculitan, 28, has seen first-hand. Caculitan, who studied social work at Seattle University, works for the Low-Income Housing Institute, a Seattle non-profit. Born in the Philippines, Caculitan immigrated to Seattle as a child. The support his working-class family received from the government and community members influenced his career choice, he said. I kind of saw what that struggle was like, so I wanted to make it a career, helping those who needed more.

As money poured into Seattle in recent years, some of Caculitans family and friends have been forced out. That will sound familiar to many Vancouverites, particularly renters. But in Seattle, even longtime homeowners with full-time jobs have had their property taxes soar beyond what theyre able to pay, forcing them to leave town.

Caculitan manages one of the tiny house villages that the City of Seattle has supported in recent years in response to the citys increasing homelessness. He works at the village in South Lake Union, a rapidly changing neighbourhood, home to expensive residential highrises and some of the citys and the worlds largest tech companies.

Chris Caculitan, a special projects manager for the Low Income Housing Institute, a Seattle non-profit housing provider, in the Lake Union Village, one of the citys tiny house villages for formerly homeless people. Dan Fumano / PNG

The village, which was an underutilized city-owned parking lot until last year, is home for 28 previously homeless Seattleites living in 22 wooden sheds. The homes are less than 100 sq. ft. each, but the villagers are happy to have a locking door and a roof that keeps out the rain.

The day before Caculitan gave The Vancouver Sun a tour of the village this month, a different Seattle was on display a six-minute Uber ride away, in a downtown hotel ballroom.

There was no shortage of optimism among government officials and business leaders from B.C., Washington and Oregon, gathered for the Cascadia Innovation Corridor Conference. The governor of Washington and premier of B.C. sat together on stage discussing big goals they share as allies, and the mayors of Vancouver and Seattle met to discuss their cities shared opportunities. There was much talk of how the Cascadia mega-region of 10 million people can be a bigger global competitor than any of its three urban centres Portland, Seattle and Vancouver could be on their own.

Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, told the crowd his trillion-dollar company has been so excited to see Vancouver increasingly take off.

We at Microsoft have been so enthusiastic about our development centre in Vancouver, said Smith, adding that its not surprising so many Seattle-based tech companies are moving north to Vancouver.

Microsoft isnt the only Washington giant growing in Vancouver. When Seattle-based online retailer Amazon unveiled plans last year to create 3,000 jobs in Vancouver in a 416,000-square-foot complex being built on top of the old Canada Post facility on West Georgia, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was there for the announcement.

B.C.s leaders have worked for years to boost the provinces tech sector. Government officials often talk about boosting the innovation economy as a way to produce high-paying jobs, generate tax revenue, and help move the economy away from dependence on resource-based industries and towards a more climate-friendly future.

Hours after Microsofts Smith sang the praises of Vancouver and Surrey, Premier John Horgan and Wash Gov. Jay Inslee took to the same stage.

The tech sector has certainly developed here, and then as it blossoms into British Columbia, we see synergies between the two jurisdictions that are compelling to investors, Horgan said. The opportunities are immense.

Some of B.C.s traditional industries, such as forestry, are struggling, but the provinces technology sector has been setting records for revenue and job numbers. The latest government numbers show more than 114,200 people are employed in B.C.s high-technology sector, with $31 billion in revenue in 2017, a 6.9 per cent increase over the previous year.

Sitting in the governors Seattle offices, Horgan listed Metro Vancouvers advantages in competing for top companies and talent from the U.S. and abroad: an educated population, top research universities, good health care, multicultural cities, order and stability.

And as U.S. immigration has tightened under President Donald Trump. it has become harder for American companies to bring in top international talent. But a Seattle-based company with a Vancouver office can attract foreign recruits to its northern outpost. That, Horgan said, represents a competitive advantage for us.

The B.C. government wants, Horgan said, to focus on lifting wages. We dont want to be the lowest common denominator.

That touches on one of B.C.s competitive advantages in the tech industry: cheap labour or at least relatively cheap. In 2017, when cities around North America made pitches to Amazon seeking to host its second headquarters, Vancouvers application highlighted: We have the lowest wages of all North American tech hubs.

Vancouvers bid, which drew criticism locally for boasting about its low-earning tech workers, cited an average salary for a software engineer in Vancouver as US$60,107 compared to $92,380 in Atlanta and $113,906 in Seattle. That means while a Vancouver software engineers average salary was almost half that of a Seattle counterpart, its still 65 per cent higher than Metro Vancouvers average market income. By some estimates, the wage gap between tech workers and other occupations is even wider in Seattle.

With the federal election days away, Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart said he hasnt heard anything on the campaign trail about promoting economic co-operation and development in Cascadia.

I havent heard it mentioned once, Stewart said after the Cascadia conference. It would be my job to make this Cascadia corridor idea clearer to the feds. The province and John Horgan are all over this. But whoever wins the federal election, I think one of the things that Ill be talking to them about is that weve got to take this more seriously.

Im a passionately proud Canadian, Horgan said, but I see there are obstacles because our east-west linkages often times get in the way of expanding our north-south relationship. Ottawa is 3,000 miles away from British Columbia physically, and sometimes, it feels like theyre a couple of light years away. So we have more in common north-south, quite often, than we do east-west.

As a former NDP MP representing Burnaby, Stewart knows about that distance between B.C. and Ottawa. His first term was under Stephen Harpers Conservatives and his second under Justin Trudeaus Liberals, and both parties, he said, seemed Ottawa-centric and out of touch with the West Coast.

International companies are looking at us in a serious way, and I dont think were ready for that, Stewart said. Im getting ready for it, but we have to have a real conversation as a community about what we want this city to be. Because I think the opportunities are there, but its just weve got to make sure we take the right ones.

Leaders on both sides of the border acknowledge concerns about the dark side of the boom.

Metro Vancouver has grappled for years with a housing affordability and homelessness crisis. But the Seattle-King County area, with a similar overall population, has almost four times as many homeless people, including many full-time workers and families with children. Researchers have found Seattles recent surge in homelessness is not linked to increases in either population or poverty in the region, but instead to rising housing costs and wealth inequality.

Vancouvers chief planner, Gil Kelley, made a prediction on the subject of local wealth inequality in 2017, when he presented the citys new 10-year housing strategy to the previous mayor and council.

Kelley, whod arrived in Vancouver a year earlier from San Francisco, where he was director of citywide planning, said both cities faced housing challenges, but there were notable differences. One key element of San Franciscos housing crisis, that hasnt quite hit Vancouver yet, but likely will, with its growing high-tech economy, was the growing wage gap between high-technology workers and regular folks in San Francisco, Kelley said.

Vancouver had high housing prices but not very high wages, and its housing affordability woes were instead largely driven by a very extreme level of speculative investment in real estate, he said.

To deal with Vancouvers near-zero rental vacancy rate, Kelleys housing strategy sought to boost construction of rental housing, a direction broadly supported by the current mayor and council.

Over the past decade, 77 per cent of homes built in Vancouver were condos and houses. Only 17 per cent were market rental homes and five per cent were social housing. That includes the uptick in rental housing in recent years, as Vancouver adopted policies to encourage private-sector apartment construction.

Its a dramatically different picture from Seattle, where the one saving grace has been the immense amount of apartment construction, said a University of Washington professor, Margaret OMara.

Policies in Seattle have been welcoming for big rental projects, while Vancouver developers have long complained their citys onerous approval process threatens the viability of such projects. A Seattle planning official recently gave a presentation to a room full of Vancouver developers, The Province reported in August, that elicited envious sighs when he talked about approving a proposed Seattle apartment tower in about a year.

Vancouver developers many increasingly active in Seattle point to Seattles rental construction boom and say Vancouver must build its way out of its own housing crisis. While Vancouvers rental vacancy rate remains below one per cent, Seattles vacancy rate is around 10 per cent, and rents in some Seattle neighbourhoods have started to drop.

But while Seattles rental supply increase has helped, somewhat, to ease the tight market, those apartments are still too expensive for many locals. And the fact that thousands of Seattleites are homeless while one in 10 apartments sit empty suggests a rental construction boom is not, on its own, the solution to the housing crisis.

Its market-rate housing, its meeting the tech workers needs, not the needs of a lower-income population, OMara said. Thats been the knock on Seattle.

In the years since Kelleys 2017 presentation, government interventions such as Vancouvers empty homes tax and B.C.s speculation tax have been credited with helping cool the housing market.

In that context, it makes sense that a large enough influx of new people earning far above median local incomes could potentially undo the recent efforts to moderate the housing market, said Trevor Barnes, a professor of geography at the University of B.C.

San Francisco and Seattle provide examples of what a tech gold rush can do if it gets big enough, Barnes said. Vancouvers tech industry, he said, is not big enough, I think, at the moment to have that kind of effect, but it is a fast-growing sector, so I dont know how long its going to be before the tide turns.

Canada also has many locally born and bred tech companies, many of which have criticized the federal government for failing to give priority to the countrys homegrown digital economy. This month, more than 100 Canadian tech CEOs signed an open letter to the leaders of the federal Liberals, Conservatives, NDP and Greens, urging them to develop economic policies that advance innovative Canadian companies, claiming Canadas productivity is lagging.

There are concerns, too, about foreign tech companies coming here to exploit our comparatively cheap labour and take home most of the benefit.

Of course, thats the story of B.C., historically, Barnes said. Foreign companies that have come in to exploit resources here, lumber and minerals. Maybe this is another version of that. Except its our talent thats being exploited.

Its up to our governments, Barnes said, to ensure enough of that prosperity benefits regular Canadians, and not only a small number of tech executives in the U.S. He isnt sure those governments are up to the task, noting its certainly not been a major issue in the federal election.

B.C. Finance Minister Carole James is aware of concerns around upward pressure on housing prices. Indeed, she said, she hears directly from the tech sector about the importance of creating affordable housing options to attract and maintain skilled workers.

Good jobs and affordable communities go hand-in-hand and we are committed to delivering both, James said in an emailed statement. Our government has made tech and innovation a priority for economic growth across the province, from Surrey to Victoria to Kelowna, because we recognize British Columbias potential to be a global hub of innovation My ministry continually monitors the housing market, and so far I am cautiously optimistic the measures implemented by our government are beginning to bear results, with strong indications that moderation and stability are returning to B.C.s housing market.

Amazons presence in Seattle is especially large as thats where it is headquartered. But even if Vancouver becomes home to a number of branch offices for tech companies, it could be enough to bring unintended consequences, Stewart said, adding it could actually be more of a risk because the company has less of a connection with the community.

Microsoft touted its deep connection with the Seattle when, earlier this year, it announced an unprecedented commitment of US$500 million in loans and grants to support middle- and low-income housing in the area.

Of course, Stewart said, his cautious approach doesnt mean he doesnt want economic growth and job creation in Vancouver.

These opportunities might be the best that ever happen to us. We just have to be able to evaluate this, as a community, Stewart said. What can we learn from Seattle and San Francisco? Whats happened to them, both good and bad?

I like a bowl of ice cream. But I dont want to eat a bucket of ice cream. And I think thats what this kind of growth can be: It can have detrimental effects if you get too much of a good thing all at once.

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Seattle offers lessons in the dark side of the tech industry boom - Times Colonist

When Kim Mullins and her husband downsized in 2011, they moved to Orchard Estates, a community of manufactured homes in Beaver County.

The couple moved there from Cranberry Township in 2011, drawn to the safety and convenience of the relatively rural community in Economy Borough. Now she feels some of these qualities have been compromised.

First of all, we are planning on moving, said Mullins, 72, citing concerns over hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, planned fewer than a thousand feet from Orchard Estates. I dont want this in my neighborhood.

Shes worried about the health consequences. She and her husband feel like prisoners in their own home, and shes concerned she wont even be able to take her dogs outside for fear that future pollution could cause nosebleeds.

She knows other residents share her worries, and some have already decided to leave the tree-lined neighborhood.

Though fracking has yet to begin, crews were working to clear-cut trees at the site in September, according to Mullins. Economy officials approved a zoning permit for the project a year ago, and in February, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued permits for the well site known as well pad B50 to Pittsburgh-based PennEnergy Resources.

A spokesperson for PennEnergy Resources declined a request for comment. Staff from the Economy Borough administrative office did not return a call requesting comment and borough council members either declined comment or did not return messages. Economy Borough Manager Randy Kunkle declined to comment in an email.

Some Economy residents say the borough should change its zoning ordinances to regulate fracking, like other nearby communities have done. Representatives from the oil and gas industry note that residents can see substantial financial benefit from fracking, which is already regulated by the state.

For municipalities in Western Pennsylvania, the question isnt whether to ban fracking a power they dont have but rather how to regulate it and reduce unwanted impacts on residents.

Differences Among Neighbors

The fact that municipalities like Economy can have different rules than their neighbors is tied to a 2013 decision from Pennsylvanias Supreme Court.

Pennsylvanias General Assembly in 2012 stripped local power to regulate fracking. But several boroughs fought back, and in December 2013, the Supreme Court in Robinson Township v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission ruled 4-2 that the new state law violated Pennsylvanias constitution, which guarantees residents clean air and water. In 2016, the court reaffirmed the principles of the 2013 decision.

Since the Robinson Township decision, several municipalities in Western Pennsylvania have passed ordinances regulating natural gas development. Municipalities lack the authority to ban fracking outright, though they can put restrictions on where it is allowed. This year, Leet Township which borders Economy designated setback distances between fracking operations and certain protected structures like homes and schools. Leet also set conditional-use guidelines governing the approval process for drilling.

John Smith, an attorney at the law firm Smith Butz, LLC, argued on behalf of Pennsylvania municipalities in the Robinson Township case. In 2016, he helped the Bell Acres Planning Commission review and update the boroughs municipal oil and gas ordinances to give it more power to determine where fracking is allowed.

Diane Abell, who chairs the Bell Acres Planning Commission, said her committees understanding of the oil and gas industry began to change in 2015, when PennEnergy started conducting seismic testing in Bell Acres and elsewhere. That was a red flag that more industry activity may be coming.

Council passed an ordinance in 2016 that restricted oil and gas development to the boroughs heavy industrial district. No residents live in this district, Abell said.

The first thing was to immediately remove oil and gas drilling from our RR-1 [rural-residential] zoning district, she said.

Mullins said she wants Economy to update its zoning ordinances to prohibit drilling in the rural-agricultural zoning district that includes Orchard Estates.

Now we are asking for that, but we cant get it for us, Mullins said.

Economy allows drilling as a permitted use in its rural-agricultural, commercial and industrial zoning districts. This means that plans for oil and gas operations are not subject to conditional-use procedures or a public hearing. Without a public hearing, local officials can approve a drilling operation without taking comment from affected residents.

A sign in Economy Borough indicating the site of future fracking. (Photo by Terry Clark/PublicSource)

According to Smith, the state Supreme Court has given municipalities the power to protect residents through zoning districts, allowing local officials to clearly define where a natural gas operation can go.

Every single municipality before oil and gas came to town has designated which parts of their township is for which particular use, Smith said. The wild card is this is the only industry weve seen that certain municipalities are willing to allow to stray outside of those defined districts.

Smith also noted that officials in some municipalities tend to prioritize the interests of oil and gas leaseholders over residents who may not stand to gain financially from fracking. Proponents of drilling cite the economic benefit to residents and the limits fracking ordinances put on residents making choices about their own land.

Jackie Root, a board member of the Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Landowner Alliance, opposes fracking regulations by municipal governments.

For them to say, It can now only be done in this area, would essentially say that you cant develop your oil and gas rights, said Root, who lives in Tioga County.

Royalty income from fracking has made a significant financial difference for Pennsylvania landowners and their families, helping to pay for college expenses, medical bills or retirement, Root added.

The natural gas industry supports common-sense, predictable and workable regulations, according to David Spigelmyer, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, which promotes natural gas drilling.

We have a long and clear record of working collaboratively with stakeholders and governments at the local level to ensure our operations are conducted safely and responsibly while protecting the private property rights of citizens to realize the full value of their land, Spigelmyer wrote in an emailed statement.

He added that organizations that oppose the industry have put forth model ordinances and zoning proposals which he called back-door attempts at banning of natural gas development that is already strongly regulated by the state.

Root said the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection [DEP] has staff with a scientific understanding of the drilling process, something local governments usually lack.

They have people trained to understand the drilling process, the permitting and the science behind it, Root said. There are regulations in place with DEP to control permits, to control setbacks and all that.

Conflict In Franklin Park

Not all municipalities have an industrial district in which to sequester fracking operations.

Franklin Park Borough, an Allegheny County municipality that borders Economy to the southeast, has residential districts as well as three mixed-use districts that allow combinations of residential, commercial and light-industrial uses. The boroughs recently enacted ordinance involves the creation of an oil and gas recovery overlay district that includes a residential and mixed-use zone.

Robin Martin, a Western Pennsylvania-based organizer who works on the Municipal Ordinance Project for the nonprofit Food & Water Watch, has been working with Franklin Park residents since November 2018. She said overlay districts must be compatible with the base zoning of an area. This means an overlay district cannot accommodate a drastically different land use than the district it is located in, whether that district be industrial, residential or otherwise. As an example, Martin said a municipality can use an overlay district in a residential area to preserve a natural landscape. Food & Water Watch supports bans on fracking nationwide.

Smith said an overlay district in a residential area should protect public health and safety, no matter how many residents live in the district.

By placing industrial use over a residential use, thats called an incompatible use, and that nullifies the base zoning intent, Martin said. You cant come right out and say its illegal, but given what the borough has dictated for their residential areas, it doesnt make sense.

In December, a group of residents formed a community organization called Protect Franklin Park in response to a proposal to lease shale gas rights underneath the boroughs Linbrook Park. Earlier this year, the group published a report containing recommendations on Franklin Parks then-pending oil and gas ordinance. Borough council adopted an oil and gas ordinance on Sept. 18.

Members of the public have 30 days starting Oct. 4 to bring legal action challenging the ordinance.

Protect Franklin Parks report suggests exploring joint land-use planning with other municipalities. Doug Shields, Western Pennsylvania outreach liaison for Food & Water Watch, said communities like Franklin Park should utilize joint planning.

Through a joint comprehensive plan, a group of municipalities can designate a portion of their collective land for industrial use. This would put them into compliance with the state Municipalities Planning Code, which requires municipalities to allow for resource extraction in their boundaries, Shields said.

Prior to unconventional drilling, there was no impetus to do area-wide zoning, Shields said, adding that the state has allowed joint planning since 1968.

For fracking wells, state law requires a minimum setback distance of 500 feet from occupied buildings, unless the owner consents to a shorter distance. Protect Franklin Park recommended a half-mile setback, citing a peer-reviewed study published by the University of Chicago and Princeton University. The study found increased risk of low birth weights for infants born to mothers who live very close to fracking sites.

Horizontal drilling, a common fracking technique that involves drilling laterally into a shale gas formation thousands of feet beneath the ground, has given energy companies some flexibility in where they locate well sites, Root said.

After first drilling vertically, a drill can be turned to penetrate horizontally through a shale formation, creating more fissures for gas to escape. Operators often drill multiple horizontal wells from a single site and can access reserves located miles away from a well pad.

From a zoning perspective, Smith said operators do not have to locate their operation in a residential district and still there should be the ability to capture that gas.

But he added that gas companies tend to view a piece of land according to its suitability for drilling and not its zoning designation.

Contesting Drilling

Industrial zoning isnt always an easy fix. Some Mon Valley residents have loudly opposed a well site proposed at U.S. Steels Edgar Thomson steel mill, which has industrial zoning. According to a permit application Merrion Oil & Gas filed with the DEP, the gas wells will be located on a section of U.S. Steels property in North Versailles Township. Supporting infrastructure for the site extends into East Pittsburgh and North Braddock.

Nearby residents worry the wells will bring increased truck traffic and degrade air quality in an industrial region that already suffers from high levels of pollution.

Municipal officials have approved permits for a well pad and supporting infrastructure. Approvals from DEP are pending.

More than 20,000 people live within 2 miles of the site, with many of these residents living in East Pittsburgh, North Braddock and Braddock, said Kelly Yagatich, who advocated on behalf of residents health in her past role as Southwest Pennsylvania outreach coordinator for the Clean Air Council.

If a municipality allows for drilling in an industrial district, it can still place conditions on the activity to protect residents health and limit disturbances.

According to Smith, local governments can require sound walls, limit hours of operation and require emissions studies as necessary steps for receiving a conditional-use permit, even in an industrial district.

The North Versailles gas well ordinance contains a conditional-use requirement and noise limits but does not require emissions studies or limit hours of operation.

Laurel and Barry Beitsinger inside their home near the site of planned fracking by Pittsburgh-based PennEnergy Resources. (Photo by Terry Clark/PublicSource)

In Economy, PennEnergy Resources has the approvals needed to move forward. But that hasnt stopped some residents from demanding that the borough change its ordinances.

The most basic fix, and thats what Bell Acres did, is said, No youve got to put this in an industrial-zoned area, said Economy resident Bryan Warren, who estimates that he lives about a thousand yards from well site B50. Even if you did allow it, you could have a more significant setback rule.

Warren lives close enough to the well site that he has concerns about noise disturbances.

When I moved here, it was to live in a quiet, residential area, he said.

For former Orchard Estates resident Laurel Beitsinger, the boroughs decision impacts the safety of residents. She moved from Orchard Estates to a nearby farm in 1975, and she worries about the harm residents could face from accidental fire or explosions as well as day-to-day health impacts. Now, she and her husband are planning to move, in part to get farther away from the fracking site.

While most of Pennsylvanias roughly 10,000 active fracking wells operate safely, accidents have been reported at Western Pennsylvania sites, including in Greene, Washington and Mercer Counties, since 2014.

Im glad I dont live in Orchard Estates, Beitsinger said. I would be terrified. Theyre ground zero.

Note: The Heinz Endowments provided funding to Food & Water Watch. The Heinz Endowments provides unrelated funding to PublicSource.

Reporting by Sam Bojarski. Fact-checked by Juliette Rihl. PublicSource.orgLicensed by BeaverCountian.com for republication.

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Economy Borough Residents Fret The Potential Harm From Fracking - beavercountian.com

Chaired by Mr. Lesetja Kganyago, Governor of the South African Reserve Bank

October 19, 2019

We extend our deepest sympathies to the people and Government of The Bahamas for the loss of human lives and the devastating impact of the recent natural disaster.

Global outlook and policy priorities

The global economy is projected to grow by about 3 percent this year, but the pace has continued to weaken since April. Growth is projected to pick up next year, but the outlook is highly uncertain and subject to elevated downside risks. These include trade tensions, policy uncertainty, and geopolitical risks, against a backdrop of limited policy space, high and rising debt levels, and heightened financial vulnerabilities. Other longstanding challenges also persist.

We will employ all appropriate policy tools, individually and collectively, to mitigate risks, enhance resilience, and shore up growth to benefit all. Available fiscal space should be used to support demand as needed. Where consolidation is needed to ensure debt sustainability, fiscal policy should be carefully-calibrated, growth-friendly, and safeguard social objectives. In line with central banks mandates, monetary policy should ensure that inflation remains on track toward, or stabilizes around targets, and that inflation expectations remain anchored. Central bank decisions need to remain well-communicated and data-dependent. We will continue to monitor and, as necessary, tackle financial vulnerabilities and risks to financial stability, including with macroprudential policies.

Strong fundamentals, sound policies, and a resilient international monetary system are essential to the stability of exchange rates, contributing to strong and sustainable growth and investment. Flexible exchange rates, where feasible, can serve as a shock absorber. We recognize that excessive volatility or disorderly movements in exchange rates can have adverse implications for economic and financial stability. We will refrain from competitive devaluations and will not target our exchange rates for competitive purposes.

We will advance structural reforms to lift growth, employment, and productivity; enhance resilience; and promote inclusion. We reaffirm our commitment to strong governance, including by tackling corruption. We will advance policies that foster innovation and more competitive and flexible markets, and strive to address challenges from demographic shifts. We will provide opportunities for all people to contribute to economic activity and share its benefits, and effectively assist those bearing the cost of ongoing transitions.

We will enhance our efforts to reduce policy uncertainty and strengthen international frameworks and cooperation.

Sustained joint action is essential to address other challenges that transcend borders. We support efforts toward achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We will continue to support domestic and multilateral efforts to address, build resilience to, and deal with the macroeconomic consequences of pandemics, cyber risks, climate change and natural disasters, energy scarcity, conflicts, migration, and refugee and other humanitarian crises. We will continue to collaborate to leverage financial technology while addressing related challenges.

IMF operations

We welcome the Managing Directors Global Policy Agenda. In line with its mandate, the IMF will continue to support its members and collaborate with the World Bank, standards-setters, and other partners to:

We welcome the IMFs efforts to continue providing high value-added support to its members and to enhance its efficiency. To this end, we welcome efforts to attract and retain high-caliber staff. We support ongoing modernization initiatives, including the HR strategy, the comprehensive review of compensation and benefits, and the work on enterprise risk management. We call on the IMF to make progress toward the 2020 diversity benchmarks. We support increasing gender diversity in the Executive Board.

IMF resources and governance

We reaffirm our commitment to a strong, quota-based, and adequately resourced IMF to preserve its role at the center of the global financial safety net. We note the lack of progress on a quota increase under the 15th Review and call on the Executive Board to complete its work on the 15th Review and on a package of IMF resources and governance reforms, and to report to the Board of Governors as soon as possible. We support maintaining the IMFs current resource envelope and welcome the extension of the 2016 Bilateral Borrowing Agreements by one year. We look forward to consideration of a doubling of the New Arrangements to Borrow and a further temporary round of bilateral borrowing beyond 2020.

Beyond the 15th Review, we are committed to revisiting the adequacy of quotas and continuing the process of IMF governance reform under the 16th General Review of Quotas, including a new quota formula as a guide, with the Review to be extended from 2020 to no later than December 15, 2023. In this context, we remain committed to ensuring the primary role of quotas in IMF resources. Any adjustment in quota shares would be expected to result in increases in the quota shares of dynamic economies in line with their relative positions in the world economy and hence likely in the share of emerging market and developing countries as a whole, while protecting the voice and representation of the poorest members.

Other issues

We express our deep gratitude to former Managing Director Christine Lagarde for her outstanding leadership of the IMF and distinguished service to member countries and the global community over the past eight years. Under Ms. Lagardes leadership, the IMF undertook important reforms to maintain its relevance and responsiveness to members needs, including by modernizing its macro-financial surveillance; enhancing its financial support, lending facilities, and capacity development; increasing attention to the social outcomes and human dimensions of IMF policies and operations; and integrating climate change, gender, governance, and income inequality into the work of the IMF. Ms. Lagarde also worked tirelessly to secure the financial resources necessary for the IMF to deliver on its mission, to ensure that dynamic emerging market and developing countries have greater voice, and to achieve support for IMF governance reforms. We wish Ms. Lagarde all the best in her new position as President of the European Central Bank. We thank Mr.David Lipton for his stewardship as Acting Managing Director during the transition.

We warmly welcome Ms. Kristalina Georgieva as Managing Director and look forward to working closely with her in meeting the challenges ahead.

Our next meeting will be held in Washington, D.C., on April 18, 2020.

Attendance can be found here

PRESS OFFICER:

Phone:+1 202 623-7100Email: MEDIA@IMF.org

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Communiqu of the Fortieth Meeting of the IMFC - International Monetary Fund