Good afternoon everyone, let me begin by saying what a pleasure it is to be able to share the podium with Rodrigo de Rato and Trevor Manuel, and to thank them for their guidance during these, my first annual meetings as President of the World Bank. I would also like to extend my thanks and appreciation, on behalf of the Bank Group, to Trevor Manuel for his leadership of the Development Committee. He guided the Committee at a critical time for our institutions, and he did so with tremendous candor, wisdom, passion, and good humor. Earlier, in my remarks to the Development Committee, I congratulated the delegates on accomplishing so much in two days, in which time I believe we’ve made significant progress in fulfilling our obligations to the world’s poorest people, whom we ultimately represent at these meetings. The high point of these meetings is the historic endorsement provided by both the Development Committee and the IMFC of the G8 proposal to cancel 100 percent of the debts of some of world’s poorest countries. The path to complete debt relief now has been cleared. Across Africa and around the World, leaders in 38 countries will no longer have to choose between spending to benefit their people and repaying impossible debts, often the legacy of governments past. From concert stadiums to high-profile summits, people from rich and poor countries alike have been moved by the suffering we see in so many parts of our world. They have demanded action, and with this debt relief agreement, they have it. We will move swiftly to give the Bank’s board of directors a paper outlining a compensation schedule and a monitoring system, a process that can be completed within weeks. I am particularly pleased that, in this breakthrough on 100 percent debt relief, the Bank’s shareholders committed to preserving IDA’s financing capacity dollar-for-dollar by assuring there will be additional funds. The Development Committee also gave its full support to the Bank’s Africa Action Plan. There was a unanimous view that we have reached a critical point in history with a real opportunity to help Africa accelerate growth and reforms. Taken together, the G8 commitments and the Africa Action Plan represent the largest commitment to increase development assistance in the past 50 years. As important as debt relief is, this scaling up of assistance to Africa is even more so because it is a commitment to support those countries outside the scope of the debt relief effort. This increased assistance will only be effective if it is matched with strong performance by the developing countries. As Prime Minister Blair has said, “it is a deal for a deal.” It is the improved performance of many African countries that gives me hope that this is a moment of real opportunity. However, even more important than both these tremendous advances is the need for a comprehensive trade agreement at the Doha round of WTO negotiations in December. A trade agreement in Hong Kong would provide the spur for investment and economic growth that promises a lasting exit from poverty for millions, even billions of people in developing countries. The momentum we now have must be maintained heading into the WTO negotiations in Hong. We have agreement on more aid, we have consensus on debt relief, now let’s complete the picture and deliver a true development round on trade. - | 
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