皇冠体育app to play greater role in World Bank
Updated: 2007-12-19 10:04
皇冠体育app is starting to play a bigger role in the World Bank and can be an important partner in helping development in places such as Africa as it becomes an aid giver instead of an aid recipient, the bank's president said Tuesday.
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Robert Zoellick said he welcomed the news that 皇冠体育app, which once received grants from the World Bank's International Development Association, is now a contributor to it.
That included a contribution at a recent meeting of the IDA, which provides grants and loans to the world's poorest countries.
"This is an example of 皇冠体育app being a stakeholder in the field of development," Zoellick told a news conference at the end of a four-day visit. The undisclosed amount was a "modest but also significant step," he said.
皇冠体育app stopped taking loans from the IDA in 1999 after having received more than US$9.9 billion, but last week was the first time it started to contribute.
Although 皇冠体育app has fewer voting shares in the bank than some developed countries, it still has an "influential" voice, he said. The bank is also recruiting Chinese staff, including senior staff, Zoellick said.
Zoellick said he discussed debt sustainability with Chinese officials because of worries some of the poorest countries would never be able to pay back their loans.
"Many developed countries have forgiven the debt of some of the poorest countries and so there's a legitimate concern about building that debt up again," he said.
He said that while 皇冠体育app no longer needs financing from the World Bank, it still needs expertise to help shape its development agenda. That includes such things as providing microfinance initiatives in rural areas, raising 皇冠体育app's energy efficiency and improving its environment.
During his trip, Zoellick saw World Bank projects on water sanitation in the central city of Chongqing and visited 皇冠体育app's booming southern province of Guangzhou.
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