China hopes IMF quota, governance reforms will get approval

China hopes that "relevant countries" will approve of the quota and governance reforms of the International Monetary Fund, said Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei on Thursday.

Hong's remarks came after media reports said that the United States Congress included in the government spending bill contents that would give emerging economies greater say in the IMF.

The US lawmakers "are scrambling to pass" the bill "by week's end", the Associated Press reported.

The reforms the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors agreed on in Korea in October 2010 include a more-than-6-percent shift of the IMF's quota shares to dynamic emerging market and developing countries and a doubling of the IMF's quotas.

The reforms would increase China's share of the IMF vote from No 6 at less than 3.7 percent of the total to No 3 at nearly 6.1 percent, while the United States' vote would remain No 1, though it would drop from 16.7 percent to a little less than 16.5 percent, the Associated Press reported.

It is essential to get approval from the United States, the largest shareholder of the IMF, to get 85 percent of the IMF's voting power to pass the reforms. But the US hasn't approved of them yet.

"The international community has been waiting for the IMF reform package to get off the ground," Hong said.

"It is hoped that relevant countries can approve the reform package as soon as possible, as it bears on the effectiveness and authority of the IMF and the stability of the international economic and financial system," he said. " We also hope that reform of the international financial system can move even further beyond that."