Prannoy Roy In Conversation With IMF Chief Kristalina Georgieva

My small country, Bulgaria, has always been fascinated with India. And in the days of Indira Gandhi, there has been friendship between the two countries. And it so happens that my cousin was the Bulgarian journalist assigned in India. So, she would come and tell us these fascinating stories about the country. So, I developed a huge interest in the culture, history and the people of India. And when I was able to travel, India was one of the first destinations. And what I saw in India is this incredible dynamism of the nation. Such a fantastic place to feel that there are values on which we can all unite: Kristalina Georgieva

There are two other things that helped enormously. One is that I was, for five years, Humanitarian Commissioner in the European Union. I had a front seat in the most dramatic crises, like the Haiti earthquake, the floods in Pakistan, the triple disaster in Japan, or the war in Syria and the refugees that had to leave their homes because of it. And all of this is extremely helpful when you are in a position that deals with crisis, because what it teaches you is one, anticipate crisis. We are in more shock from the world. Two, act decisively. Three, care about the most vulnerable people. And in this crisis, I truly benefit from having lived through this experience. But in addition to that, I have this unique qualification for the crisis of tomorrow. I’m a trained environmental economist. My PhD is in environmental economics, and I know that the pandemic is a very dramatic shock for the world. But similarly, the climate crisis already is devastating in many places. You see it in India. And it can be even more devastating unless we act, unless we shift to low carbon climate resilient development. And I have this privilege to lead the firm at the time when preventing the climate crisis is becoming a global imperative: Kristalina Georgieva

Well, it is sure that in this crisis, women stepped up. There is a famous saying of Eleanor Roosevelt that women are like tea bags. We don’t know how strong we are until we are put in hot water. And in hot water, women do well: Kristalina Georgieva

“I have not expected that my first year would be a year like no other. But I can tell you, I’m very proud of what the IMF has done. We leaned forward early in the crisis. We have provided massive support to our members in need, over a hundred billion dollars so far. For 81 countries, never in the history of the IMF have we done so much, so fast. And beyond the money, what we strive to do is to help countries understand what must be done in this crisis and learn as quickly as possible from each others via transmission line for our membership in this difficult time”: Kristalina Georgieva