Time to Refocus on Core Mission, Says World Bank's East Asia & Pacific Vice President

News Release No. 2007/EAP/375

Contacts:
In Washington:
Elisabeth Mealey (202) 458 4475
emealey@worldbank.org

Washington DC, May 21, 2007 -- With resolution of the questions surrounding the World Bank’s leadership, the Vice President for the Bank’s East Asia and Pacific Region, Jim Adams, has called for renewed focus on the organization’s core mission. 

"With this issue resolved and behind us, we can now focus all our efforts on the considerable development challenges in East Asia and the Pacific,” Mr. Adams said. “That includes providing people with access to basic services, helping governments deal with a return to civil conflict, filling the infrastructure gap or providing advice on how to deal with income inequality. The list of challenges is long, even in a region that has grown so quickly. We continue to have a major role to play, and we can now put all our effort and time into it.”

"However difficult the process has been to resolve this crisis, we are determined to confront governance matters front-on within our institution, in the same way that we encourage our client countries to do,” Mr Adams said. “We look forward to supporting countries of the East Asia and Pacific region to tackle the challenges they face.”

The World Bank supports more than 20 countries in the East Asia and Pacific region through grants and low-interest loans for activities aimed at boosting economic growth, reducing inequality and improving people’s living conditions. To support this work, the Bank provides technical and policy experts to work on the ground with Governments and other development partners.

This year, the Bank expects to commit over US$4 billion in low-interest loans and grants to the East Asia and Pacific region. Among other things, Bank funding over the past year has translated into: new houses for thousands of people in Yogyakarta made homeless by the 2006 earthquake; improved livelihoods for rural people in six Mongolian provinces; better sanitation in urban areas of China, Vietnam and the Philippines; and infrastructure and other investments in partnership with other donors in the Pacific country of Kiribati that help it address the risks and impacts of climate change and climate variability.

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