Date: Wednesday, May20, 2009

On May 20, Finland hosted a meeting between the World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick and his counterparts from the Nordic and Baltic countries. At the meeting in the historical venue known in Helsinki as 'Smolna', President Zoellick spent half a day with Ministers of Finance and Development Cooperation from Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden to discuss amongst others how the Nordic and Baltic countries and the World Bank Group best can continue their cooperation to address the financial and economic crises.

World Bank Group President Zoellick and the Nordic and Baltic Governors of the World Bank also discussed governance reform of the World Bank, as well as the role of the World Bank in the international efforts to address climate change.

To learn more about the World Bank Group's financial crisis outlook, and our efforts to address the financial crisis, see www.worldbank.org/financialcrisis

For more information on how the World Bank Group is helping countries to adapt to and mitigate climate change, see www.worldbank.org/climatechange

The review of internal governance conclusions and proposals prepared by the World Bank Group for the April Spring Meetings can be found here and and the recommendations from shareholders can be found here.

While in Helsinki, World Bank President Zoellick met with Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb and Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen.