DUBAI , 20 September 2003— After the collapse of global trade talks in Cancun, rich countries must pay up on promised aid and poor countries should crack down on corruption to strike a needed balance on development, World Bank President James Wolfensohn said yesterday.
In an interview with Reuters ahead of the bank’s annual meetings, he said he was nervous that Cancun and the failure of rich countries to deliver on aid had raised questions about the $16 billion development deal stuck in Monterrey last year. “We’re coming here at a time when the trade negotiations have had a setback so there’s going to be quite a lot of uncertainty (at the meetings) between rich and poor about the Monterrey balance,” he said. In March last year, heads of state from around the world met in Monterrey for a United Nations conference on development financing. Rich countries promised to boost aid flows.
But much of the money has not been forthcoming, in spite of the promises, with initiatives on education and debt relief still waiting for extra cash. “I know that we need to solve those problems and it’s my hope that we will make progress during the meetings,” he said. “The whole question of delivery is the center point of discussions.”
Poor countries have made progress in sticking to their side of the Monterrey deal but many are still facing challenges on democratization and corruption, he said.
But if more money were on offer that would give poor countries a powerful incentive to make progress. “If countries knew that there was $50 billion available I have no doubt that they would adjust,” Wolfensohn said.
For the first time since the annual meetings began in 1946, they are being held in the Middle East, thrusting the region’s economies into the spotlight. “It’s important for people to understand it’s more than fundamentalism and wars,” he said.