Contacts: Carl Hanlon chanlon@worldbank.org +1 202 473 8087 Amy Stilwell astilwell@worldbank.org +1 202 458-4906 WASHINGTON , June 23, 2008 – The following is a statement from World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick on the initiative announced on Sunday by Saudi Arabia to help the world’s poorest people cope with the burden of high energy prices.
“We will work with the Saudi government to explore how best to support the initiative announced by King Abdullah to address the energy needs of the world’s poorest countries,” said Mr. Zoellick . “The combination of high fuel and energy costs is having a devastating impact on the poor, putting an especially large burden on the 1 billion people who live on less than $1 a day, many of whom spend two-thirds of their income on food for their families and on energy and transport”
Background:
King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud has called on the Saudi Fund for Development to allocate US$500 million in loans for poor country energy needs, and he asked the World Bank to organize a meeting of donors and development institutions to formulate an Energy for the Poor initiative. In addition, he urged the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Fund to take measures to alleviate the impact on the poor.
The call by King Abdullah was made on Sunday at a conference in Jeddah organized by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the International Energy Agency, the International Energy Forum and OPEC. The conference was attended by 36 developing and developed countries, including most oil exporting countries, major oil companies also participated.
World Bank research suggests that high energy prices will result in economic growth in about 40 developing countries being between 3% and 10% lower than it would have been otherwise – affecting millions of people.
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