September 25, 2005 — "I believe we've made significant progress in fulfilling our obligations to the world's poorest people, whom we ultimately represent at these meetings," World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz told reporters at the conclusion of the semi-annual meeting of the Development Committee, a ministerial-level committee of the governors of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. "The high point of these meetings is the historic endorsement," said Wolfowitz, "of the G8 proposal to cancel 100 percent of the debts of some of the world's poorest countries." Finance and Development ministers who were gathered for the Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank reached agreement on financing of the debt relief promise put forward by G7 finance ministers in London last June and endorsed by the heads of G8 countries in Gleneagles in July. "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," said Wolfowitz. According to South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, Chairman of the Development Committee, "What entered these meetings as G8 agreements, emerged as G184 agreements. The agreements now carry the full weight of support of all members states of the IMF and the World Bank." Over the weekend, meetings of the Development Committee, as well as the International Monetary and Financial Committee of the IMF, endorsed the G8 proposal to cancel 100 percent of the debts of some of the world's poorest countries. In the final communiqué of the Development Committee, shareholders committed to preserving IDA's financing capacity dollar-for dollar by assuring additional funds. Within the next few weeks, the World Bank will submit a paper outlining the compensation schedule and monitoring system to its Board of Directors. Calling the decision a "sea change" from previous discussions, Manuel said that the new agreement allows for faster implementation of the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals. The Development Committee also supported the World Bank's new Africa Action Plan and committed the Bank to increased financing of infrastructure as part of a growth agenda. "Taken together, the G8 commitments and the Africa Action Plan represent the largest commitment to increase development assistance in the past 50 years," Wolfowitz told reporters. As important as debt relief is, he said, 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. But, said Wolfowitz, increased assistance must be matched with strong performance by the developing countries. Performance in Africa has been improving in recent years and there is agreement that current conditions create an opportunity. Macroeconomic reforms have been undertaken resulting in a 7 percent average growth rate across Africa. But no African country is currently on track to meet any of the Millennium Development Goals. The Development Committee emphasized the importance of a comprehensive, pro-poor trade agreement at the conclusion of the Doha Round in December in Hong Kong with the ministerial level meeting of the World Trade Organization. "The momentum we now have must be maintained heading into the WTO negotiations in Hong," said Wolfowitz. "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."
|
RSS