Montenegro Joins The IMF And World Bank

“Montenegro has joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, boosting each institution's total membership to 185 countries. 

           
The Balkan republic of 620,000 people became Europe's newest country last summer after its voters supported a split from Serbia in a May referendum. … Both the IMF and the World Bank made separate announcements about Montenegro's membership on Thursday. IMF chief Rodrigo de Rato said the country's transition to independence has been impressive and economic activity has recovered. He also noted that the country has increasingly become the focus of investor interest. ...” [The Associated Press/Factiva]

           
De Rato further pointed out that “[T]he future holds many challenges. Achieving a sustained increase in prosperity will require sound economic management, in order to establish the conditions for economic growth and stability - not least in harnessing the benefits of strong foreign direct investment and tourism for the country's future development.” [Xinhua (China)/Factiva]  

           
Montenegrin TV notes that “…The original IMF statute and World Bank convention were signed by the Montenegrin Finance Minister and Central Bank Council President, Igor Luksic and Ljubisa Krgovic respectively. … With its membership in the IMF and World Bank Montenegro has completed its integration into the global economic system and has won the right to apply for financial aid like all the other members of these organizations.  …  Membership in the IMF is very important because with the help of this international organization's program's Montenegro will accelerate its journey to the European Union, Krgovic pointed out. … Luksic believes that membership in the IMF and World Bank is of exceptional importance for Montenegro because of its future ratings, and that it is an excellent signal to all potential investors who are prepared to invest in Montenegro. …”  [Montenegrin TV/Factiva]

           
“… Montenegro’s quota, or stake in the IMF, was set at $41.2 million out of a total of $325 billion of the 185 members. …  The World Bank said it is developing a new four year strategy for Montenegro to help shore up public finances and to encourage private sector investments. ‘The strategy, which is expect to be completed by mid-2007, is likely to focus on supporting Montenegro on the path toward European Union membership; promoting growth and jobs through investments in environmentally sustainable tourism infrastructure, along with other high priority infrastructure needs; and supporting government efforts to strengthen and streamline social services such as health and education,’ the Bank said.” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Huge Cut In Measles Deaths Hailed As Triumph: Africa Leads The Way With 75% Reduction, Campaign Could Eradicate Disease From Planet

“Measles deaths have been slashed by more than half by a concerted campaign that was hailed Thursday as a triumph for global public health and could pave the way for eradication of one of the world's most infectious diseases. 

           
Between 1999 and 2005, there was a 60 percent reduction in annual measles deaths worldwide, from 873,000 to 345,000, according to United Nations figures reported in the medical journal the Lancet. Africa, where children are most prone to die when they catch measles because of poor nutrition and other infections including HIV, has led the way, with a 75 percent drop in deaths. In 1999, 506,000 African children died - 90 percent aged under five. By 2005, the figure had fallen to 126,000. Partners in the UN's measles initiative, including the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, the UN Foundation and the US Centers for Disease Control, are thrilled to have surpassed the target, which was to halve the number of fatalities. …” [The Guardian (UK)/Factiva]

           
“… Measles is not a major killer in the western world, with the vast majority of children vaccinated against the disease at about two years old. In less developed countries however, the death toll is much higher, as children are far more likely to die from the complications of the disease such as encephalitis, pneumonia and diarrhea. Between 1999 and 2005, more than 360 million children across the world received a measles jab as part of mass vaccination efforts. The ‘coverage’ - or proportion of children getting the first vaccination - has risen from 71 percent to 77 percent, say researchers. …” [BBC News Online]

           
“…  The greatest remaining challenge lies in Asia, where most measles deaths are in India, Pakistan and Indonesia. Indonesia's drive against measles is well under way. Pakistan's is expected to start this year. But India has yet to adopt the strategy promoted by UNICEF and the WHO, which calls for a second dose of measles vaccine for children during routine checkups or campaigns. Experts estimate that more than 100,000 children die each year from the complications of measles in India, more than in any other nation. In Africa, to keep measles deaths low, national health systems too poor to provide high levels of immunization through routine health care must carry out immunization campaigns every three to four years. …” [The New York Times/Factiva]

           
“… The initiative has spent about $390 million to date and will need about $500 million more to reach the goal, according to the partners. The Red Cross has been the largest contributor, raising $118 million, and Vodafone the largest corporate contributor, giving $2 million. … Vaccination costs about 90 cents, with about 35 cents going for the vaccine, a disposable needle and the collecting of needles, said Edward Hoekstra, a physician who helps run UNICEF's measles efforts. Much of the Measles Initiative's investment in recent years has been in improving the ‘cold chain’ that allows the heat-sensitive vaccine to be delivered still potent to remote places. This requires generators to power freezers and the purchase of large numbers of portable ice chests, said Peter Salama, UNICEF's chief of health. …” [The Washington Post/Factiva]

           
“… Peter Strebel, of the WHO and a co-author of the study believes the measles reduction program could be a model for combating other deadly diseases. ‘The delivery strategy (to reach marginalized children) really has the potential to reach children with other life-saving interventions,’ he said. ‘If we can build on that strategy it could have a much greater impact on child mortality than on measles alone.’” [Reuters/Factiva] 

           
In a commentary published in The International Herald Tribune, Director General of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan writes “… The measles vaccine has been around for more than 40 years, but it took a new partnership - with commitment, caring and cash - to turn things around. … This achievement was reached by building on the strategies and infrastructure of the polio eradication initiative, as well as on countries' own efforts to reach more infants with routine immunization services. … Increasingly, teams administering measles vaccine are delivering a bundle of other life-saving and health-promoting interventions: bed nets for malaria, vitamin A supplements for the malnourished, deworming tablets that help keep kids in school, polio vaccine and tetanus vaccine to protect pregnant women. This is a value-added approach that amplifies the impact of public health initiatives and proves the power of partnerships. …” [The International Herald Tribune]

Brazil, Venezuela Take 1st Step Toward Gas Mega-Pipeline

“Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Venezuelan counterpart in Rio de Janeiro signed Thursday an accord that foresees construction beginning in 2009 on the first leg of what is intended to be a continent-spanning pipeline to carry natural gas from Venezuela to the Southern Cone. 

           
The declaration represents the first concrete step toward realizing Chavez's proposal for a 12,515 kilometer (7,776 mile) conduit to transport Venezuela's abundant gas to Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, at an estimated cost of $23 billion. Chavez, a leftist who champions South American integration, and his host agreed Thursday to authorize engineering studies on the proposed first leg of the pipeline. The initial portion would run from the gas fields in Mariscal Sucre, Venezuela, to a processing facility that the respective state-owned oil companies - Brazil's Petrobras and Venezuela's PDVSA - plan to build near the Brazilian city of Recife. …” [EFE News Service/Factiva]

           
“… Da Silva of Brazil and Chavez also signed agreements covering a heavy oil project in Venezuela's Orinoco Basin and a gas-development accord known as the Mariscal Sucre Gas Project. … All the deals signed Thursday were protocols of intention, and therefore don't yet represent firm investment decisions by the two countries. Brazil and Venezuela agreed to move on to the ‘conceptual planning phase’ of a first section of the natural gas pipeline that is planned to cross more than 5,000 kilometers starting in Guiria, Venezuela, and ending in Recife in northeastern Brazil, Sergio Gabrielli, the chief executive of Brazil's state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR), or Petrobras, said in a press conference after the signing ceremony. …”  [Dow Jones/Factiva]

           
Meanwhile, “South American leaders sought to refocus their fractured trade bloc on the needs of the region’s poor masses at a summit Thursday… . Da Silva, hosting the two-day summit attended by all of the continent's leaders except Peru's Alan Garcia, said it is time for the region to map its own economic future to benefit South Americans who live with little hope for the future. …” [The Associated Press/Factiva] 

           
“South American leaders gathering on Thursday … focused on a single, contentious issue: should the Mercosur trade group continue to emphasize economic integration, as Brazil and Argentina prefer, or transform itself into a political alliance with an ‘anti-imperialist’ tint, the path Chavez of Venezuela favors? The conference's Brazilian hosts tried to minimize the prospect of tensions, with Foreign Minister Celso Amorim talking of a ‘reinforced Mercosur’ that he said ‘belongs to everybody.’ But Chavez declined to play along with diplomatic niceties, bluntly staking out his position the instant he got off the plane on Thursday morning. …”  [The New York Times/Factiva]

           
“Lifting South America's poor masses from misery is a top priority for the Mercosur trade bloc, leaders said during a summit that ends Friday. But how to cut poverty - through aggressive socialism that rejects US economic models or a more cautious approach - is disputed. Chavez, who is using his nation's oil riches to dole out profits to his nation's poor as well as needy people across the Americas, said that his version of ‘21st century socialism’ is the solution. …  But Da Silva urged a more cautious approach for resolving South America's wide divide between rich and poor.

           
The moderate leftist who embraces free-market economic policy insisted the five-nation bloc - which could grow to six with the addition of Bolivia - must move carefully to promote regional economic integration in a way that also accommodates each nation's political differences. If Mercosur doesn't now craft a mutually acceptable economic integration plan, he said, it would never be approved by its member countries. The member states represent 250 million people with a gross domestic product of $1 trillion, or about 76 percent of the total for South America. …” [Dow Jones/Factiva] 

           
“Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa presented some criticisms of the current process of South American integration and ruled out, for now, that Quito would seek to become a full member of Mercosur. The president, who made his remarks upon leaving the meeting … said that being an associate member does not have all the advantages and rights of being a full member, but it also does not have any of the obligations. …” [EFE News Service/Factiva]

Kenya To Play Host To Siren Calls Against Globalization

“Tens of thousands of anti-globalization activists are expected to descend on Nairobi this weekend for the World Social Forum (WSF), billed by organizers as a chance to express mass opposition to a world dominated by capital. 

           
The seventh annual WSF will be the first time the event has been staged in its entirety on the world's poorest continent where complaints about the impact of globalization are often the loudest. High on the agenda during the January 20-25 meet will be topics with particular concern for Africa, including the HIV-AIDS epidemic, conflict resolution, debt levels and migration. Among the 160,000 campaigners slated to arrive in the Kenyan capital are Zambia's founding president Kenneth Kaunda, former UN high commissioner for human rights Mary Robinson and Kenya's 2004 Nobel peace prize winner Wangari Maathai. But organizers are hoping the spotlight will fall mainly on the plight of ordinary people whose living standards have failed to improve as the economies of the West and emerging Asian powerhouses surge ahead. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

           
“… The world forum, which began in Porto Alegre in Brazil, comes this year just days before the World Economic Forum in the Alpine resort of Davos from January 27. … Although it has the largest economy and is one of the most stable nations in east Africa, host country Kenya nevertheless encapsulates many of the problems under the microscope. AIDS has devastated the Kenyan population, while more than half of its 35 million people live on less than a dollar a day. Organizers face a logistical nightmare housing participants, with many expected to put up in tents or in local homes.” [Reuters/Factiva]

Lebanon Says Needs Massive Global Aid

“Lebanon said Thursday it needs to be handed massive amounts of aid at next week’s donors’ conference in Paris to help the country become a ‘stabilizing’ element in the troubled Middle East.

           
‘If we want to help Lebanon on a structural basis, or for the long-term ... to become a stabilizer in the region ... the international community has to hand massive assistance and support to Lebanon,’ Finance Minister Jihad Azour said. Azour was addressing diplomats from over 30 countries as well as representatives of international institutions who are due to attend the Paris III donors' conference for Lebanon on January 25. ‘The G8 countries ... have an opportunity to solve the problem at very low cost because solving the Lebanese problem today may cost a few billions ... but in the future it could cost more,’ he said. … Azour said ‘the assistance has to be global because the problem of Lebanon goes beyond the Lebanese society: most of it is currently related to regional issues.’ … Immediate material damage from the war has been put at $3.5 billion in a country where public debt currently runs at $41 billion -- or more than 180 percent of gross domestic product. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Briefly Noted…

The World Bank’s Senior Vice-President for Development Economics and Chief Economist, François Bourguignon, will be in Manila to hold a lecture-forum on the role of equity in development on January 22, 2007. The lecture-forum, a partnership between with the Philippine Economic Society and the World Bank, will have simultaneous video conference links with the Knowledge for Development Centers of the University of Southeastern Philippines in Davao City and Silliman University in Dumaguete City. [The Manila Bulletin (Philippines)/Factiva] 

             
Acting Country Director of the World Bank Mohamed Alhousseyni Toure expects that solutions would be found to the present political difficulties and that Bangladesh could again continue on its own path to a brighter future. ‘There is no doubt that this country has the potential for rapid economic development and poverty alleviation,’ Toure said, citing the explosive growth in the telecom sector of Bangladesh. He said much of this progress has been driven by the competing private mobile operators while the role of the Government of Bangladesh has been to provide a conducive environment. [United News of Bangladesh Limited/Factiva]

           
Public procurement in developing countries accounts for 15-20 percent of GDP, out of which 20-25 percent is lost due to leakages and malpractices, said procurement specialist World Bank Uzma Sadaf, on Wednesday. These non-transparent activities were noted by the Transparency International with concern sensing a large portion of funds going waste. Presenting her study "An Introduction to Procurement" at Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, she said the total GDP of Pakistan was $112 billion in 2004-05. The anticipated public procurement was $17-22 billion in that period, under which, a loss of $3.4 - 5.5 billion is considered under the leakage percentage criteria. [Business Recorder (Pakistan)/Factiva]

           
The representative of the EU in Sudan has blamed the World Bank for delaying use of the Multi-Donor Trust Funds for reconstruction in southern Sudan. In an interview with Sudan Radio Service in Khartoum, EU Special Representative to Sudan Pekka Haavisto said European states have fulfilled their Oslo pledges, but the money has not been released because of World Bank bureaucracy. [The Sudan Tribune]

Two people who died of bird flu in Egypt last month had a strain of the H5N1 virus which has shown "moderate" resistance to the frontline antiviral Tamiflu, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. The United Nations agency said the latest cases did not change its recommendation to treat bird flu patients with Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir. [Reuters/Factiva]

           
International senior legislators from the G8 and key emerging economies will convene in the US Congress next month on climate change and energy security, according to a statement released by the World Bank on Thursday. The forum will negotiate a consensus statement to be presented to Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, who holds the G8 presidency this year, according to the Bank. [Xinhua (China)/Factiva]  

           
Britain on Thursday launched plans for a voluntary, United Nations-type standard for consumers and businesses to offset their emissions of greenhouse gases, in a bid to clarify a growing, unregulated market. The new British standard would meet the same criteria as an established, regulated market in carbon credits, overseen by the UN climate change secretariat for countries trying to meet emissions targets under the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. [Reuters/Factiva]

           
Major corporations are joining environmental groups to press US President George W. Bush and Congress to address climate change more rapidly, news reports said on Friday. The coalition, including Alcoa Inc., General Electric Co., DuPont Co., and Duke Energy Corp. plans to publicize its recommendations on Monday, a day ahead of the president's annual State of the Union address, The Wall Street Journal reported. The group also includes Caterpillar, PG&E, the FPL Group, PNM Resources, BP and Lehman Brothers, The New York Times reported. [Reuters/Factiva] 

           
Brazil is prepared to open its markets to more foreign trade if an elusive deal to cut global farm subsidies and tariffs can be reached in the next few months, Brazilian Ambassador Roberto Abdenur told the Brazil-US Business Council said on Thursday. [Reuters/Factiva]