In Delhi: Geetanjali Chopra (91 11) 2461-7241 E-mail: gchopra@worldbank.orgIn Washington: Karina Manasseh (202) 473-1729
E-mail: kmanasseh@worldbank.org New Delhi, 17 November, 2004 – India is central to global stability, peace and economic prosperity, since its development is not just an issue for Indians but for the entire planet, said World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn here today. The Government of India’s Common Minimum Program showed a country with the vision, resources and capacity to address poverty and the inclusion of the hundreds of millions of rural poor. Its challenge now, said Wolfensohn, was the aggressive implementation of the program and the unleashing of the country’s entrepreneurship to make this happen. Wolfensohn was speaking in the Teen Murti auditorium at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, having arrived in New Delhi yesterday for a two-day official visit, including meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Earlier today, Wolfensohn called on the President, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. In an address entitled “India: Opportunity and Challenge in a Globalizing World”, Wolfensohn congratulated the new leadership in India led by Dr Manmohan Singh and noted its evident commitment to reform. He commented on the “enormous transformation” of India over the past ten years. “India is more confident, more outward. It’s looking to sign free trade agreements across the region; it’s looking to China not as a political challenge but as a trading partner; it’s looking to solve problems in Kashmir, with Pakistan” Wolfensohn said. India’s multi-tiered administration recognized that a country of its size could not be run from the center: “One must work at the local level to engage people in poverty not out of charity but as the asset on which you build the country; a partnership between the entrepreneurs of fast-growing India and the 700 million in the rural and peri-urban areas, many of whom have been left behind.” A recurrent theme for Wolfensohn was the challenge of a “two-speed India”, one in the global fast lane of entrepreneurial talent and technological creativity, a lane where Indian companies were becoming a global presence. In the other lane were the 600,000 villages of rural India where most of India’s over 250 million poor people live under $1 a day. “The challenge now is how you can spread this enormous profusion of entrepreneurial talent,” said Wolfensohn describing a meeting earlier today with representatives of India’s youth. “What they told me is we need jobs, we need opportunity, young women need empowerment, we need protection from HIV/AIDS. They asked how they could help the less fortunate, those in child labor, the children not in school.” Delhi’s Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit welcomed Wolfensohn on behalf of the city saying his visit could not have come at a more opportune time. “There is a great churning in India; it is like an aircraft about to take off.” On Thursday, Wolfensohn will visit agriculture and education projects supported by the World Bank in Uttar Pradesh and meet with private sector leaders in New Delhi. ### For more information on the World Bank’s activities in India, visit: http://www.worldbank.org.in/ |
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