Recognizing the growing influence of developing nations such as China and India, the World Bank Group members on Sunday agreed to give developing countries a larger voice in running the affairs of the institution.
The members agreed to bring about a 3.13 percent shift in favor of the developing countries giving them just over 47.19 percent of the total votes, while the advanced economies’ share of the total fell to just under 52.81 percent.

Amongst the developing nations whose voting rights were increased, China was the biggest gainer. China’s vote share increased from 2.77 percent to 4.42 percent, making the Asian giant the third most influential member of the World Bank behind the US and Japan. Germany, Europe’s largest economy, fell to fourth place. Comparatively, India’s voting rights increased marginally from 2.77 percent to 2.91 percent, placing India in seventh place after the US, Japan, China, Germany, France and United Kingdom.

“We are grateful to our shareholding countries for this strong vote of confidence,” said World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick. “The change in voting-power helps us better reflect the realities of a new multi-polar global economy where developing countries are now key global players.”

Over the weekend, The International Monetary Fund also optimistically upped their GDP growth targets for both India and China. “As is now well known, China and India will again lead Asia’s growth with growth rates of 10 and 8.8 percent respectively this year,” Anoop Singh, International Monetary Fund’s Director of the Asia and Pacific Department told reporters on Saturday after a meeting of the Fund’s steering committee.

Youssef Boutros-Ghali, chairman of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) of the 186-nation Fund, too acknowledged that IMF had changed in recent years, with emerging markets having a bigger say. “It’s a different institution,” he told reporters.