Entrevista

Technical assistance is another core mechanism of the IMF. It links the Fund with its member states via expertise sharing. IMF technical assistance covers a wide range of issue areas including central banking, monetary and exchange rate policy, tax policy and

administration, and official statistics. It takes various forms including Fund staff’s visits

to member countries to advise government and central bank officials on specific issues, Fund provision of resident specialists on a short- or a long-term basis, and training courses for member country financial government officials. The technical assistance mostly targets the IMF’s low- and lower-middle-income countries, in particular in sub- Saharan Africa and Asia. The core products of IMF technical assistance are internationally standardized policy process methods and techniques. (IMF 2009c; IMF

official website19) Via taking a part in IMF technical assistance, member countries learn to adopt the methods and techniques that are widely used in the most advanced financial economies, as well as promoted by the IMF.

China has received continuous technical assistance from the IMF since the 1980s via training courses in IMF institutes, IMF experts’ and lecturers’ visits to China, and periodical posts in IMF headquarter for the Chinese officials sent by the state’s financial institutions. IMF technical assistance programs provided China with significant information in formatting and processing financial data and policies with internationally formalized methods. For example, the IMF’s early efforts encouraged China to use gross domestic product (GDP) data instead of net material product (NMP) data, which indirectly made Chinese officials recognize the importance of the service sector that was excluded from NMP measurements. (IBRD 1983: 1: 244-254, IBRD 1985)

The most remarkable example is IMF Statistics Department’s training programs for China. The programs provide training courses for the staff from China’s crucial financial institutions (both at central and provincial level) such as the PBC, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), the Ministry of Finance (MOF), the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The training programs mostly cover macroeconomic statistics, fiscal reform, taxation, balance of payments, budgetary, and monetary operations. Most of the programs are initiated in response to Chinese requests for specific information and training in

techniques. They take the forms of (1) hands-on, issue-oriented short-term missions designed to address specific areas of weakness in statistics; (2) short seminars for high- level officials on the use of macroeconomic statistics for the purposes of analysis and policy formulation based upon internationally accepted methodologies; (3) tailored training combined with on-the-job training relating to specific practical topics; (4) participation in general training activities in Washington D. C, at the Joint China-IMF Training Program in Dalian, the Joint Vienna Institute, and the IMF-Singapore Regional Training Institute; and (5) training course/study visits to IMF headquarters on methodology and compilation procedures for Chinese officials. (IMF 2009c: 7-17)

The IMF Statistic Department has delivered a substantial amount of valuable technical assistance to help China’s financial institutions produce data using internationally acceptable methodologies and practices, both for authority use and for the IMF’s operational purposes. (IMF 2009c: 5) For example, they have assisted the PBC in addressing methodological issues arising from the recent developments in the financial sector, and implementing standardized reporting forms. They have helped the CBRC learn the technical methods on how to compile financial soundness indicators and how to analyze these data, thereby improving the effectiveness of its regulatory services. In addition, the training helped the MOF officials understand the government finance statistics methodology, improve data quality and facilitate international comparison of fiscal data, thus helping them achieve the goal of more closely aligning China’s fiscal data with international standards. The training course provided by IMF Statistics Department for the MOF in 2008 helped it address several outstanding data classification

and compilation issues. With the assistance of the IMF, the MOF implemented a new classification system of government revenues and expenditures in 2007 and increased transparency and dissemination of fiscal data. (IMF 2009c: 7-17)

Last but not least, the Statistics Department conducted several activities in cooperation with the NBS. The most remarkable one was to help coordinate General Data Dissemination System initiatives in China. The Statistics Department sent a technical assistance mission on GDDS in 2003, and co-hosted an international meeting on technical cooperation in statistics with the NBS in 2004, followed by organization of several training seminars on the quarterly national accounts in 2004 and on the use of macroeconomic statistics in 2005. The department also hosted visits to IMF headquarter by several NBS delegations, to discuss issues relating to the GDDS and data dissemination and exchanges. Since China joined in 2002, the GDDS has provided a framework to further develop China’s statistical systems and helped identify technical assistance needs and coordination with IMF technical assistance providers. The evaluation report on IMF Statistics Department’s technical assistance to China in 2009 concluded that since China joined the GDDS, its agencies had made considerable progress in improving the production and dissemination of macroeconomic data, most notably in the introduction of more features of internationally agreed methodologies and datasets; improvement in data dissemination following GDDS recommendations, such as dissemination of advance release calendars on several agencies’ websites; wider dissemination of statistical products, including through websites; and faster and more frequent release of several sets of data. In addition, the establishment of a GDDS office

within the NBS helped coordinate the work on the GDDS with all the other agencies involved at the senior level. (IMF 2009c: 7-17)

When China started to receive technical assistance from the IMF, it learned standard statistical and other technical methods via mimicking because Chinese leaders had almost no understanding of the basic reporting conventions and obligations of a modern market economy, let alone of the institutions needed to make it function. In this way, the IMF membership prompted China to adopt the international standards of measurement, by which the Chinese learned how to better evaluate itself and present itself to the outside world. The example of China replacing NMP data with GDP data was a good example of mimicking. Later, mimicking gradually transformed into social influence. Especially by joining the GDDS, the approved behavior such as adopting internationally agreed methodologies and datasets, disseminating data on the institutions’ websites, and more frequent release of datasets have earned China some approval and ‘back-patting’ in the IMF. As said by Mr Zheng Jingping, the General Director of the Department of Comprehensive Statistics of the NBS:

‘Looking back the whole process of China’s joining the GDDS, once more we realize that, actively participating in international statistical activities and conducting international collaborations are an important, non-substitutable way to promote statistical development. With reference to the good experiences of advanced countries, it will be faster, better and get-twice-the-result-with-half-the-effort to reach the development goals. In addition, introducing the internationally accepted standards and

practices not only optimizes statistical system, but also is convenient for international comparisons and beneficial for China to heighten its international status.’ (Zhang 2004)

However, there is little evidence to show that IMF technical assistance has led to persuasion. The process of technical assistance does not require ‘private acceptance’ and therefore it is difficult to tell if the Chinese authorities have accepted and internalized the international norms embedded in the technical procedures. This is also why IMF technical assistance has generally been welcomed by the Chinese authorities: firstly, most of the programs are initiated from the authorities’ request for specific information and techniques; and then the IMF responds with appropriate technical assistance programs after discussions with the national authorities. In this way, the Chinese authorities take the control of the contents of the training courses and the extent to which they reach the Chinese officials. Secondly, IMF technical assistance focuses on methodological issues such as reporting forms, data collection and process methods, which does not directly impinge upon China’s domestic economic policies.