Zoellick: ….Thanks very much. Hope you all had a good weekend. I really appreciate all of you coming by to see me on my first day. I’ve got a lot to learn including how to find my way to the office! So when we get done, people can show me the right direction! I know all of you have been working extremely hard, I know you have finished the fiscal year work program and the budget and I got some emails over the weekend about what I heard was a pretty good session on IDA and I hope to learn a little bit more about it later today. So, I really just wanted to start by thanking all of you. I know it’s been a tumultuous time, I know there has been a lot of stress related to this and I hope that with your help, we can sort of come together and focus on what I know draws you to the Bank - which is the mission, which is very, very important. I had an opportunity over the past couple of weeks to travel to Africa, to Europe and to Latin America and I just want to relay to all of you that every place I went, people were very, very proud of working with the Bank. I know we don’t necessarily have people from the field staff, from the country offices, here this morning, but universally, every place that I talked to, people have lot of praise for the expertise and the skill of the people from the World Bank. Sometimes they wanted things to move a little bit more quickly as I am sure you do too, but it was a very nice opportunity for me to be able to start not even being part of the organization yet, but to carry the benefit of the work that all of you do. It is a real honor for me to be here as part of the World Bank, to be with all of you. As I think some of you know, I have had association with the World Bank for some 20 years since I started at the Treasury department in the 80s. I know that this institution really draws from the best around the world. That people come here because of a special commitment and that this is an institution that continues to learn because the challenge of development and overcoming poverty is not something that people can just follow by a formula; so it’s something that all of us together need to continue to figure out how best to try, how to deal with. So, for me, after a number of wonderful professional opportunities, this is really the greatest one for me, so I really appreciate all of you coming and saying hello this morning. The start of what I really want to focus on is to really get to know the people at the Bank and so the very first thing that I am going to do when I get upstairs is to send out a notice that we will have an open forum next week. I figure this week with the holiday and everything else and maybe we should just wait a week and the purpose of that forum will really just be for me to say a few words but to take questions from people and we will try to figure out some way to connect with emails from people out in the field as well. So, you can get to know me a little bit as I get to know you as well. Also, having recognized that sometimes those big fora are not always the easiest for people, I am going to try to come by and see different people in the offices over the coming weeks and we will set up some lunches. I asked particularly to meet some of the younger Bank staff, I think I got one set up for tomorrow and then we will get your ideas because I want to try to meet as many people as we can and learn about the work that you are doing. I know that what draws me to the World Bank is the mission, the critical role that this institution plays in so many countries around the world. Obviously, Africa is very much in the forefront but from my experience in and all of yours, is about 70% of the poor people in the world are in the so called middle-income countries too. So, there is a big challenge in those countries as well. So, I know that this has been a very fast changing environment so the world of today is certainly different from the Bank that I knew 20 years ago, or 10 years ago when I was starting to deal with some of these issues in the trade area; and I have no doubt that the role of the Bank will continue to be extremely important in the years to come and together that’s what we need to figure out and figure out how best to try to approach. So, I gathered, they at least brought some coffee so you didn’t have to just get up so early for no reason!. So, I appreciate very much having a chance to say hello. I will have an opportunity, I am sure, to meet all of you as the time goes on - and I just want to say how much I really look forward to being with you. So, thanks very much and I will say hello to some people and in the next week you can ask your questions, alright, so thanks. |
RSS