Saudi Arabia has no plans to contribute extra funds to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or any other institution, Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf said Saturday. “There is no specific emergency fund for the IMF or any other institution,” Al-Assaf said in an interview on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said earlier this month during a visit to the Kingdom, the world's largest oil exporter, that Saudi Arabia should contribute more to the IMF to bolster funds to help emerging markets ward off the worst effects of the global financial crisis. Al-Assaf said Brown had suggested during his visit that Gulf countries and China, which hold large foreign exchange reserves, should all contribute more. “This is his opinion. This is not our opinion. We are not going to pay more or less than others. We have been playing our role responsibly and we will continue to play our role, but we are not going to finance the institutions just because we have large reserves,” Assaf said. “These reserves are for the development of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the minister said. “There were lots of rumors that we were coming here to pay the bill, there is no such thing.” He said King Abdullah stressed in his speech during the G20 summit the need for an equitable burden-sharing between all IMF member states. He said the King also told other leaders about Saudi Arabia's plans to implement a $400 billion development and investment program in the oil and government sectors over the next five years. Al-Assaf said the Kingdom has been a generous contributor to international economic and financial institutions. “More importantly our policy with regard to the oil market is very important and responsible when we invest in increasing our capacity in order to have stability in the oil market, which of course is reflected in the stability of the financial markets as well as the global economy at large,” he said. US President George W. Bush said on Saturday that a summit of world leaders agreed to make reforms to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
