Press Release No. <a name="P17_75"></a>05/220

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has named Akira Ariyoshi as Director of the IMF's Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. Mr. Ariyoshi succeeds Mr. Hiroyuki Hino, who has returned to Washington D.C.

Mr. Ariyoshi, a Japanese national, joined Japan's Ministry of Finance as a career civil servant in 1976, and held a variety of positions in the Ministry, most recently Deputy Director-General of the International Bureau. He also has worked at the IMF in Washington on two occasions-most recently from 1998 to 2000 as Assistant Director of the Monetary and Exchange Affairs Department (now Monetary and Financial Systems Department). Mr. Ariyoshi holds a D.Phil in Economics from the University of Oxford, and a B.S. in Mathematical Engineering from the University of Tokyo.

The Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (OAP), which is located in Tokyo, is part of the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department. Working with staff in Washington, it monitors regional economic and financial developments, participates in regional fora on monetary and finance cooperation, and helps promote dialogue in the region on current issues and challenges in the international financial system as well as on the Fund and its policies.