WORLD BANK WARNS AGAINST 'BUSINESS AS USUAL' AT G8 SUMMIT.
World Bank President James Wolfensohn yesterday urged leaders of the eight most powerful nations in the world to guard against a "business as usual" approach to fighting poverty and disease in developing countries, reports Agence France-Presse. "There is much to be done if we are to ensure that all countries are included in the world economy, and that the poorest countries benefit from the process of globalization," Wolfensohn wrote in letters sent to the G8 leaders, who are to hold their annual summit on July 21-23 in Okinawa. "A world in which the rich get richer while the poorest countries are left out can never be secure and stable,"
"Despite a relatively benign short-term economic outlook, without further action the international development goals we have set for ourselves will not be met," Wolfensohn said in the letters. "Business as usual will not do."
Noting that debt relief for the world's poorest nations will be on the agenda in Okinawa, he called for "speed and flexibility" in efforts to ease debt burdens in the developing world. Also reporting, the Guardian (UK, p.22) says concern is growing among aid agencies and debt campaigners that the Okinawa summit will fail to break the logjam on debt. The G7's original target was for 25 countries to embark on the process by the end of 2000. This has been scaled down to 20, and with five months to go, just nine have received interim debt relief, totalling $15 billion.
Of this total, according to Wolfensohn, the World Bank will contribute $4.5 billion, with the rest provided by the IMF, regional development banks and bilateral creditors, AFP notes. But difficult decisions lie ahead for donor nations in expanding the list of eligible countries, many of which are poorly governed, Wolfensohn warned.
Wolfensohn also told the leaders, "We believe that a major international effort on communicable disease control, especially for AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and childhood diseases, is a global public good that is now critical for successful poverty reduction," Jiji Press reports. And he urged them to bridge the digital divide between rich and poor countries to enable everyone to get access to the power of new technology and its ability to transform personal and national livelihoods. "It is essential that we assist developing countries in establishing a structural internal framework in which information technology can flourish," Wolfensohn is quoted as saying.