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AN ACT TO ENABLE FIJI TO BECOME A MEMBER OF THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND, THE INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT, THE INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION, THE ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK AND THE ASIAN INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT BANK
[Long title subst Act 34 of 1974, effective 28 November 1974; am Act 43 of 2017 s 2, effective 11 August 2017]
WHEREAS pursuant to the Articles of Agreement drawn up at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held in the year 1944 at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire in the United States of America, two international organisations known as the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development were established:
And whereas pursuant to the Articles of Agreement approved by the directors of the said International Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the year 1960 an international organisation known as the International Development Association was established:
And whereas pursuant to the Articles of Agreement adopted at the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East’s Second Ministerial Conference on Asian Economic Co-operation held at Manila on 4 December 1965 an international organisation known as the Asian Development Bank was established:
[Recital insrt Act 34 of 1974 s 2, effective 28 November 1974]
And whereas pursuant to the Articles of Agreement adopted at Beijing in the People’s Republic of China on 29 June 2015 an international organisation known as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank was established:
[Recital insrt Act 43 of 2017 s 3, effective 11 August 2017]
And whereas in pursuance of their Articles of Agreement the said international organisations have each prescribed terms and conditions on which Fiji may become a member of the respective organisations and on which the Articles of Agreement relating to each such organisation may be signed and accepted on behalf of Fiji:
And whereas it is expedient that Fiji should be a member of the said international organisations:
Section 7 — Repurchase by a member of its currency held by the Fund
- (a)A member shall be entitled to repurchase at any time the Fund’s holdings of its currency that are subject to charges under section 8 (b) of this Article.
- (b)A member that has made a purchase under section 3 of this Article will be expected normally, as its balance of payments and reserve position improves, to repurchase the Fund’s holdings of its currency that result from the purchase and are subject to charges under section 8 (b) of this Article. A member shall repurchase these holdings if, in accordance with policies on repurchase that the Fund shall adopt and after consultation with the member, the Fund represents to the member that it should repurchase because of an improvement in its balance of payments and reserve position.
- (c)A member that has made a purchase under section 3 of this Article shall repurchase the Fund’s holdings of its currency that result from the purchase and are subject to charges under section 8 (b) of this Article not later than five years after the date on which the purchase was made. The Fund may prescribe that repurchase shall be made by a member in instalments during the period beginning three years and ending five years after the date of a purchase. The Fund, by an eighty-five percent majority of the total voting power, may change the periods for repurchase under this subsection, and any period so adopted shall apply to all members.
- (d)The Fund, by an eighty-five per cent majority of the total voting power, may adopt periods other than those that apply in accordance with (c) above, which shall be the same for all members, for the repurchase of holdings of currency acquired by the Fund pursuant to a special policy on the use of its general resources.
- (e)A member shall repurchase, in accordance with policies that the Fund shall adopt by a seventy per cent majority of the total voting power, the Fund’s holdings of its currency that are not acquired as a result of purchases and are subject to charges under section 8 (b) (ii) of this Article.
- (f)A decision prescribing that under a policy on the use of the general resources of the Fund the period for repurchase under (c) or (d) above shall be shorter than the one in effect under the policy shall apply only to holdings acquired by the Fund subsequent to the effective date of the decision.
- (g)The Fund, on the request of a member, may postpone the date of discharge of a repurchase obligation, but not beyond the maximum period under (c) or (d) above or under policies adopted by the Fund under (e) above, unless the Fund determines, by a seventy per cent majority of the total voting power, that a longer period for repurchase which is consistent with the temporary use of the general resources of the Fund is justified because discharge on the due date would result in exceptional hardship for the member.
- (h)The Fund’s policies under section 3 (d) of this Article may be supplemented by policies under which the Fund may decide after consultation with a member to sell under section 3 (b) of this Article its holdings of the member’s currency that have not been repurchased in accordance with section 7 , without prejudice to any action that the Fund may be authorized to take under any other provision of this Agreement.
- (i)All repurchases under this section shall be made with special drawing rights or with the currencies of other members specified by the Fund. The Fund shall adopt policies and procedures with regard to the currencies to be used by members in making repurchases that take into account the principles in section 3 (d) of this Article. The Fund’s holdings of a member’s currency that is used in repurchase shall not be increased by the repurchase above the level at which they would be subject to charges under section 8 (b) (ii) of this Article.
- (j)
- (i)If a member’s currency specified by the Fund under (i) above is not a freely usable currency, the member shall ensure that the repurchasing member can obtain it at the time of the repurchase in exchange for a freely usable currency selected by the member whose currency has been specified. An exchange of currency under this provision shall take place at an exchange rate between the two currencies equivalent to the exchange rate between them on the basis of Article XIX, section 7 (a) .
- (ii)Each member whose currency is specified by the Fund for repurchase shall collaborate with the Fund and other members to enable repurchasing members, at the time of the repurchase, to obtain the specified currency in exchange for the freely usable currencies of other members.
- (iii)An exchange under (j) (i) above shall be made with the member whose currency is specified unless that member and the repurchasing member agree on another procedure.
- (iv)If a repurchasing member wishes to obtain, at the time of the repurchase, the freely usable currency of another member specified by the Fund under (i) above, it shall, if requested by the other member, obtain the currency from the other member in exchange for a freely usable currency at the rate of exchange referred to in (j) (i) above. The Fund may adopt regulations on the freely usable currency to be provided in an exchange.
| Section 8 — Charges | |||
| (a) | (i) | The Fund shall levy a service charge on the purchase by a member of special drawing rights or the currency of another member held in the General Resources Account in exchange for its own currency, provided that the Fund may levy a lower service charge on reserve tranche purchases than on other purchases. The service charge on reserve tranche purchases shall not exceed one-half of one per cent. | |
| (ii) | The Fund may levy a charge for stand-by or similar arrangements. The Fund may decide that the charge for an arrangement shall be offset against the service charge levied under (i) above on purchases under the arrangement. | ||
| (b) | The Fund shall levy charges on its average daily balances of a member’s currency held in the General Resources Account to the extent that they— | ||
| (i) | have been acquired under a policy that has been the subject of an exclusion under Article XXX(c) , or | ||
| (ii) | exceed the amount of the member’s quota after excluding any balances referred to in (i) above. | ||
| The rates of charge normally shall rise at intervals during the period in which balances are held. | |||
| (c) | If a member fails to make a repurchase required under section 7 of this Article, the Fund, after consultation with the member on the reduction of the Fund’s holdings of its currency, may impose such charges as the Fund deems appropriate on its holdings of the member’s currency that should have been repurchased. | ||
| (d) | A seventy per cent majority of the total voting power shall be required for the determination of the rates of charge under (a) and (b) above, which shall be uniform for all members, and under (c) above. | ||
| (e) | A member shall pay all charges in special drawing rights, provided that in exceptional circumstances the Fund may permit a member to pay charges in the currencies of other members specified by the Fund, after consultation with them, or in its own currency. The Fund’s holdings of a member’s currency shall not be increased as a result of payments by other members under this provision above the level at which they would be subject to charges under (b) (ii) above. | ||