国内英语新闻:China's voting power in World Bank ascends to third place

WASHINGTON, April 25 (Xinhua) -- World Bank member countries reached an agreement on Sunday to shift more power to emerging and developing nations, under which China's votes increased to 4.42 percent from 2.77 percent, making it the third largest voting power holder in the Washington-based international institution.

In total, the World Bank approved a 3.13-percentage-point increase in the voting power of the Developing and Transition Countries (DTCs), making it 47.19 percent now and representing a total increase of 4.59 percentage points for the DTCs since 2008.

"This increase fulfills the Development Committee commitment in Istanbul in October 2009 to generate a significant increase of at least 3 percentage points in DTC voting power," said the World Bank in a statement.

Chinese Finance Minister Xie Xuren (C, Front) and other participants pose for a group photo prior to the IMF-World Bank Development Committee meeting in Washington April 25, 2010.

After a first phase of reforms agreed in 2008, developing countries have an around-44-percent share in the World Bank.

At the Pittsburgh G20 summit in September 2009 and the Istanbul Development Committee meeting in October 2009, the bank's shareholders agreed to raise the voting rights to at least 47 percent for developing and transition countries.

"We were just pleased that we are getting close to reflecting China's increasing share in world economy, and that is reflected in edited voting share," World Bank President Robert Zoellick told Xinhua after the Development Committee meeting.

"Today was a good day for multilateralism," said Zoellick. " This shift of shares is agreed by our shareholders. They try to recognize the change in the world economy and include the contribution to the development in the methods, which can encourage developing countries in transition."