China on Thursday said Zhu Min's nomination as deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shows the fund is making progress in lifting the representation of the emerging economies.

If approved by the board, Zhu, former deputy governor of the People's Bank of China and special adviser to the IMF managing director, will be the first Chinese national to hold such a senior position at the fund.

"Such a nomination indicates that the IMF has made major progress in lifting the representative of emerging economies and developing countries," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular press briefing.

Hong urged the IMF to further its reform, and repeated that the management of international financial institutes should be selected in an open, transparent and merit-based way as well as being more representative of emerging economies and developing countries.