The "most qualified" person AN EGYPTIAN might take the top job at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Mohamed El--Erian, a 45-year-old emerging markets debt expert was nominated, along with two other candidates, to become the IMF's next managing director. El-Erian worked for the IMF for 15 years until 1997, when he joined the United States-based Salmon Smith Barney. He is currently managing director at Pacific Investment Management Co. The other two nominees for the top post are Stanley Fischer, a Citigroup executive and former IMF deputy managing director, and Andrew Crockett, former head of the Bank for International Settlements. Fischer is a US citizen, and Crockett is a Briton. The nominations were made by IMF Executive Director Abdel-Shakour Shaalan and are backed by the G11, a group of developing countries that are IMF members. Since its inception, the IMF has always been headed by a European, following an unwritten convention whereby a US citizen has typically headed the World Bank. However, a growing number of countries has recently sought to break the European hold on the job. The IMF's top job has been vacant since Horst Kohler resigned last month to run for the presidency of Germany. The nominees list from continental Europe includes many senior economists and government officials. Among them are Jean Lemierre from France, who now heads the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Rodrigo Rato, Spain's outgoing finance minister, and Mario Monti, an Italian who is a European Union commissioner. France and Germany favour Lemierre, according to press reports. The US government has said it favours an open process that gives the job to the "most qualified" person. The US is the IMF's biggest single shareholder. Japan is the second but both are outweighed by the EU as a bloc. While El-Erian has a good academic background in addition to 15 years of IMF, he does not have any national or international political experience. Born in New York, he has an economics degree from Cambridge University and a masters and doctorate in economics from Oxford. He has served on various boards such as the Emerging Markets Traders Association and Emerging Markets Creditors Association. GACIC assembly THE GERMAN Arab Chamber of Industry and Commerce (GACIC) is scheduled to hold its annual general assembly 26 April. Mahmoud Mohieddin, chairman of the National Democratic Party's economic committee, will be the guest speaker and is scheduled to address the audience on finance, trade and investment. German Ambassador Martin Kobler, leading local industrialists, representatives of donors and international institutions and EU diplomats in Cairo will all be in attendance. Cairo's GACIC, established in 1951, is one of the first such German chambers established abroad after World War II, though there are now 70 around the world. GACIC has 2,000 Egyptian and German members.
