Prague, May 31, 2000 PROCEEDINGS MR. : [In Czech.] MR. WOLFENSOHN: Well, I missed the introduction, but I gather I am supposed to say something. I have, as you know, been here today to look at the arrangements for the Annual Meeting and also to have the opportunity to meet with the President, the Prime Minister, Finance Minister, other members of the government and with the Bohemiae Foundation earlier. Very briefly, I am very much impressed by the physical facilities and the arrangements for the Annual Meetings. They are far better than what we have available in Washington, and it looks to me as though the meeting from an organizational point of view is on an extremely good track. I also had the chance to meet with President Havel, who is planning a meeting just prior to the Annual Meetings, to indicate support for dialogue and for discussion on issues, and I was very happy to both hear this proposition and to express to him that we wished to cooperate fully in that extremely important endeavor. I was able at the meeting of the Bohemiae Foundation to indicate the strong commitment of the Bank to dialogue, and the fact that we have no problem with people who have different views, but that we would very much like the opportunity of working constructively together with their views and our views. And it would be my hope that these meetings will give us a real opportunity to look at issues of globalization, issues of poverty, issues of social justice, any issue that anybody wants to raise, and to do so in a constructive way. So I am leaving Prague this afternoon with a very positive feeling about the arrangements and very optimistic about having a successful series of meetings here in September. I want to thank you, Mr. Minister, for your support and your government for what you have done and pledge to you the full cooperation of the Bank, and I am sure that is true also of the International Monetary Fund that I do not lead, but I think today I can speak on their behalf as well. MR. : [In Czech.] MS. : [In Czech.] MR. WOLFENSOHN: The priority is to identify those areas in which poverty exists, which, regrettably, are many, in the 140 countries we deal with. And so the first thing is to work out with the countries and the regions the plans that they have for poverty alleviation, and then work with them, work with civil society, work with other institutions under the leadership of the government of those countries, and to do so on a long-term basis. As to raising money for this, at the moment in just about every country there is adequate funding. The problem is much more the implementation of programs than it is an obstacle of money. That is the situation today. It may change in the future. But the Bank raises its money by going to the public markets and borrowing it, and those markets are very adequate, and we have the capacity to do it. For the poorest countries, we have to finance through IDA, which is the development agency, and for a three-year period, we are covered by donations from governments. The major issue that we need to resolve is the contribution from the United States of $800 million. But it appears that that will be dealt with during the coming months and that year by year we will have adequate funding for this purpose. MR. : [In Czech.] MR. : For the demonstrators who are not so much interested in dialogue as in just plain demonstrating and being disruptive, have you reviewed the plans for security? And do you have any input there or any advice for the people who are handling that? MR. WOLFENSOHN: I think the answer is I have been told generally what is happening, but this is entirely the responsibility of the Czech authorities. They are our hosts, and it seems to me that they are making good preparations. But maybe the Minister should comment rather than me. It is not something that the Bank has the responsibility for. MR. : Well, the organizers on the Czech side are very much concentrating on the security issue, which is, of course, serious and it is an absolute priority for everyone involved in the process of preparation to be sure that Prague is a safe and prepared city also in terms of security issues, and I must say that we, of course, are cooperating well in this respect with governments of other countries. I would, however, like to say one very important thing. It seems clear to me from comments in the last half a year that many people are thinking that what will be happening in Prague is a sort of—that there is a sort of possibility of some drastic, dramatic conflict, and I do not think so. And as far as I know, the World Bank and IMF does not think so as well. Most of the people that will be coming to Prague to protest are coming to lead a dialogue. They are coming to speak about the problems which really exist, like the poverty, like ecological, environmental issues and so forth. Regarding Washington institutions and anyone involved in the process of preparation, we are open to that dialogue. And, basically, I think that there is no reason to picture—to make some black, dramatic pictures that some crazy people will be coming to Prague. The reality is very different, and we understand the NGOs as partners. MR. : [In Czech.] MR. : Thank you. Mr. Wolfensohn, recently the relationship between the World Bank and Slovenia changed, and Slovenia became a contributor to the World Bank projects. How do you see the position of the Czech Republic with regard to the World Bank? How would you describe the partnership between your institution and the Czech Republic? MR. WOLFENSOHN: I was just getting coached by my colleague here who thought I might say the wrong thing. I see the situation with the Czech Republic as, first of all, a continuation of what we are doing now, which is basically providing technical services not money to the Czech Republic. And I expect that the Czech Republic will ultimately become so rich that it does not need either the money or the technical services from the World Bank. And I hope that they do that quickly, but I think there will be an orderly transition from the Czech Republic. It is my hope, my serious hope, that as we move into the digital age and can connect both ourselves and clients on information and on training and experience, that we might also move to the point where Czech officials and Czech academics and even NGOs can become those that participate in building capacity in other parts of the world. There has been experience in this country that is extremely good, and there are probably some experiences here that people would like to talk about on which they have some doubts. And I think what we need to open up is not just a dialogue where the Czech Republic is a receiver of either money or ideas, but I think we are coming to a point where the Czech Republic can, in fact, also participate as at some point a donor but also as a participant in building the international community. And I do not think that is very far away. In fact, I think there are examples where it could already take place. So I see a natural evolution for this country. MR. : [In Czech.] MR. : I wanted to ask about Mr. Mertlik’s comments on your expectations of the protests. I have spoken to some NGOs myself, and I think he is right that most of them do really want to participate in the process and have a dialogue. But I also remember that there were some similar statements to his made before the Seattle WTO meeting and the IMF meeting in Washington. So I wonder if you could provide some specifics about things that you are doing to potentially head off some of the problems that they had in those places. MR. : Well, I think it does not make sense to discuss the technical details of Prague’s security preparations for the Annual Meetings. It is our obligation as organizers to secure and protect the health, lives, and well-being of everyone – from the citizens of Prague, the participants of the Annual Meetings, and the protesters themselves. And we will fulfill our duty. That is all. MR. : [In Czech.] MR. : [In Czech.] MR. : One question that I touched upon earlier -- are you satisfied with the progress of the Stability Pact in Southeastern Europe: isn’t this process stalled? MR. WOLFENSOHN: Well, there are a number of initiatives which have been arranged around the area, and I am not a great expert on the progress of the Stability Pact. I can say that in terms of the activities of the Bank and the European Union, in terms of reconstruction, that they are moving ahead with, I think, reasonable force. I think that Mr. Hombach and the Stability Pact have articulated programs that it appears may not have gone as quickly as they would have wished, but so far as I know, there is no attempt to withdraw from these programs. On those that affect us, it is business as usual. We are trying to move ahead. I cannot comment on others, but I can tell you that on the component that affects the Bank, where we have undertaken to do things, we are, in fact, moving ahead and our office is quite busy. MR. : [In Czech.] MR. : When you meet with NGOs and during dialogue, will there be some assurances of follow-up so that they can feel, you know, that aside from being listened to on this one event, that there will be sort of a continuing dialogue? Is that what you intend? MR. WOLFENSOHN: Well, the funny thing about dialogue with the NGOs is that at least four of the five years I have been in the Bank, we have had both a dialogue and follow-up. So I am not creating it for Prague. We have an existing mechanism of regular interface with NGOs. To give you an example, when I came we had two representatives who dealt full-time with NGOs around the world. We now have 80 spread around the world. So the dialogue with NGOs is really consistent and substantial. We also have a large number of NGO committees that work with us on particular subjects. So I take NGOs very seriously. It may be that I take them more seriously than they take us. So there will be follow-up from the Bank, I can assure you, as there has been in the last several years. I welcome the dialogue. We cannot actually do what we have to do without NGOs. But I also think that we can make a huge contribution to the effectiveness of NGOs. So I very much hope that we will get over the stereotyping of the Bank and of NGOs, and get over some of the issues of trust and, frankly, get down to the question of being accountable to each other and working together. I should only comment to you that the Bank is transparently accountable. That is not universally true for NGOs. And this is something that I would love to see on both sides of the equation. MR. : [In Czech.] MS. : [In Czech.] MR. WOLFENSOHN: Well, it is far from a rhetorical remark, madam. If you take Africa, for example, I have meetings now regularly at the Annual Meetings with African Ministers, which are separate and very well prepared. I also have a new dialogue with the countries that are involved in what we call our Comprehensive Framework, which is an open dialogue which I have with any country, informally, at the meetings. This has proved to be extremely useful because there is no agenda other than a discussion, and we sit together and discuss the issues that are on everybody’s minds. I also meet separately with the Group of 77 who prepare a list of issues for me to discuss, and I then go along and discuss it with them, and finally, we meet individually with each of the countries. So I do not know what else we can do than that. It is now a—it is a very exhausting set of meetings for us, but, in fact, we do the extent that physical capacity permits. And I do not hear any more complaints, frankly, about access. And then, of course, during the year, we travel a lot. And the final thing that I would say to you is that we now have 2,500 people in the field. So in all our offices overseas, we are now doing roughly 50 percent of our business with the decision-making power in the field. It makes a huge difference for countries when they have people locally with whom they can deal. And, finally, we now have linked all our offices by satellite, voice, data, and video. So you can come in any country and meet not just with the local representative, but you can meet with people at head office or in any other country. So the linkage is becoming very complete regardless of the poverty of the country. And we are now running 400 video conferences a month, which gives you an idea of just how big a change the technological revolution has incited. The problem is not communication. The problem is the complexity of the problems themselves. I think we have plenty of discussion. It is just that some of these problems are very, very difficult, particularly when you have wars or when you have AIDS problems. In Africa, the biggest problem is not getting to talk to people. It is that one-fifth of the countries are engaged in war and you have 23 million cases of AIDS, increasing at 4 million a year. So I believe we are through the communication problem. We are now down to the issues themselves. MR. : [In Czech.] |
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