World Bank’s East Asia Vice President Confirms Support to Region to Deal with Financial Turmoil

Contacts:

In Washington: Elisabeth Mealey (202) 458 4475

emealey@worldbank.org

Carl Hanlon (202) 473 8087

chanlon@worldbank.org

Washington DC, October 15, 2008 — The World Bank’s East Asia and Pacific regional vice president Jim Adams has confirmed the Bank’s support for countries in East Asia to deal with the global financial turmoil

“We stand ready to support all of our member countries across East Asia to deal with the challenges arising from the financial crisis,” Mr Adams said.  “The World Bank is also supporting the initiatives of ASEAN members to share information and develop a coordinated response in close cooperation with the ASEAN Secretariat.

“While we do not anticipate the establishment of a regional facility and have not discussed commitments of funds at the regional level, numerous discussions with individual governments were held during the recent Annual Meetings of the World Bank and IMF on the impacts of the financial crisis and possible ways we might be able to provide support at the country level.

“East Asian economies continue to perform strongly and have made significant changes since the 1997 Asian financial crisis making them more resilient to the impacts of the current global turbulence.  Like all countries, Asian economies must be prepared to deal with any effects of the turmoil,” he said.

The World Bank is committed to helping governments and the private sector manage the impacts of the global financial crisis by providing increased lending, equity investments, innovative new tools, and safety net programs.

The World Bank has the financial capacity to comfortably double its middle-income lending arm (IBRD) to developing countries to meet additional demand from partner countries. IBRD lending was US$13.5 billion last fiscal year.

The Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is considering setting up a special fund that would provide equity to recapitalize small to medium-sized banks in poor countries with insufficient government capacity to help inoculate them from global financial market turmoil.

IFC might contribute around $1 billion and seek to raise another $2 billion or more from various sources including international financial institutions (IFIs), commercial banks, bilateral government financial agencies and other investors.