Items in this collection

Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
  • Publication
    Remarks at the Virtual 24th ASEAN Finance Ministers’ Meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-10-02) Malpass, David
    World Bank Group President David Malpass spoke about the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and the economic shutdown of the advanced economies, which will result in the first major recession in ASEAN countries since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. He described how in East Asia and the Pacific, the World Bank Group has been taking broad and fast action to support developing countries in the face of this pandemic. He announced earlier this week that he had proposed to the Board to make available up to twelve billion US dollars of fast-track financing to countries for the purchase and deployment of Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines. He urged the G20 to extend the debt moratorium through 2021 and to consider further options for debt reduction, resolution, and increased transparency. He described the Coronavirus (COVID-19) impact on trade and global value chains, which is critical to the region’s growth prospects. He believed that prospects for the East Asia and Pacific region show room for positive outcomes. He concluded by saying that, continued international cooperation to maintain an open and rules-based trading system will be essential for achieving a sustainable and inclusive global economic recovery.
  • Publication
    Forty Years of Reform and Poverty Reduction: Remarks at the International Forum on China’s Reform and Opening Up and Poverty Reduction
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-11-01) Kim, Jim Yong
    Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, spoke about the following: i) understand China’s journey and get the historical record right; ii) understand China’s past reforms, because they are important for future reforms; iii) understanding China’s reforms is increasingly important for the rest of the world; iv) china’s reform and opening up program, which was the foundation for the rapid growth that allowed people to lift themselves out of poverty; v) a focused and sustained effort targeted at poverty reduction throughout the reform period.
  • Publication
    Speech at the Session on China’s Economy, Promoting Reforms in Major Areas, and Accelerating the Shift in Driving Forces for Development
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-09-12) Kim, Jim Yong
    Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group (WBG), offered several strategic considerations for China. First, for the foreseeable future, removing distortions and accelerating diffusion will remain major sources of growth. Getting the basics right – structural reforms in key markets, further improving the broader business environment, ensuring fair competition, and investing in broad-based skills of the labor force – should help drive growth. Second, China should consider how to balance industrial policies with the notion of the third plenum, that the market should play a decisive role in resource allocation. Third, like other countries, China needs to prepare for how technological change will impact the labor force. He concluded by saying that China’s leadership has been critical to promoting an open, competitive global economy.
  • Publication
    New Approach to Economic Challenges
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-07-24) Kim, Jim Yong
    Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank, spoke about economic challenges requiring a new approach. Growth forecasts are modest and risks are increasing. The reform agenda includes fiscal and monetary policies to support demand, more investment in infrastructure, further integration in the world economy, structural reforms in labor markets, the financial sector, and the business climate to better allocate resource, and investment in innovation systems to accelerate technical change. One key drivers of discontent is rising inequality. The productivity slowdown and rising inequality are related. The challenge is to create wealth with reasonably equal distribution to sustain the momentum for reform. This will require active labor market policies and retraining. We will need infrastructure that connects people. We need to invest more in people. Concessional finance can provide the leverage for these reforms. We need to commit to creating a world in which truly there is equality of opportunity.
  • Publication
    Speech at the Official Launch of the Green Climate Fund Secretariat, Songdo, Korea, December 4, 2013
    (2013-12-04) Kim, Jim Yong
    Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, called this an extremely important day. Man-made climate change is real and is having a significant impact-- an increasing impact. We are convinced that there is no way that we will be able to end poverty by 2030, without tackling climate change in the most serious manner. He praised the Green Climate Fund as a source of enormous optimism and hope in the fight against climate change, and said the Fund was an "historic opportunity" to protect future generations.
  • Publication
    A Dynamic Partnership in New Frontiers – Africa
    (2013-12-03) Kim, Jim Yong
    Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, called the country "an exceptional example of an aid recipient turned donor" and urged business leaders to invest in Africa to help millions of Africans emerge from poverty, while also finding strong economic returns in new markets. It used to be that if you wanted to do something around development, the focus was on official development assistance, foreign aid. Korea is one of the countries that benefited tremendously from foreign assistance. The World Bank made many investments in the Republic of Korea and to a great extent some of the greatest successes were related to the relationship between the Republic of Korea and the World Bank Group. For countries to have the same experience that Korea has had--going from one of the poorest countries in the world to now being the 14th largest economy in the world--the private sector will have to play a critically important role.
  • Publication
    Trading for Results: Realizing the Promise of Doha
    (2005-10-12) Wolfowitz, Paul
    Paul Wolfowitz, President of the World Bank, complimented the impressive work of agencies like the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. Japan is a big player everywhere in the world. The World Bank depends heavily on Japanese financial markets for borrowing. Today, Japan is a major market for developing countries and a major source of development assistance. Developing countries will need assistance to help their entrepreneurs take advantage of new trade opportunities. A swift and meaningful conclusion to the Doha round is essential if the Bank is to win the fight against poverty, disease, and hunger.
  • Publication
    Remarks on the Comprehensive Development Framework
    (2000-02-23) Wolfensohn, James D.
    James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank Group, remarked that the overwhelming pressure on the planet is a concern that affects all of us. The pressures on the environment, on health, on trade, on crime, on growth, on drugs, on immigration—all bring us close together in one planetary context. The Vietnamese economy is facing these issues as it tries to accommodate all these factors at the same time: the pressure of competition—competition for investment, the desire to relate the country to the international trading system, and the desire to create an environment which is hospitable to domestic and foreign investors and which spreads the wealth throughout in an equitable way. Through the Comprehensive Development Framework, the country should lead its citizens, civil society, the private sector, and the international institutions to set up not a series of projects but programs. These programs will identify the issues to be addressed over the next 10 years or 15 years. There needs to be some comprehensive form of review of process, and review of plans so that one can have an integrated approach, an approach that can be leveraged, that is participatory and that engages each sector of society.
  • Publication
    Rethinking Development: Challenges and Opportunities
    (2000-02-16) Wolfensohn, James D.
    James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank Group, discussed his vision for development, addressing these topics: poverty and the development agenda; rethinking the approach; the global trading system and the development agenda; and the partnership imperative. He concludes that the Bank must work to realize an ambitious vision if we are to go forward together into a new century in which the long pent up aspirations of the poor of the earth are to have the chance for fulfillment that they deserve.
  • Publication
    Address Presenting the Fifth Annual Report
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 1950-09-08) Black, Eugene R.
    Eugene R. Black, President of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, spoke about the war in Korea and the repercussions around the world. He discussed how much progress was being made in Europe in hammering out new patterns of production and trade to replace and improve prewar patterns that cannot be restored. He also said that with the cooperation of the members, Bank can aid, in creating confidence and the kind of economic environment which will encourage productive investment, both local and foreign, private and public. He examined some of the steps underdeveloped nations must take in order to effectively translate aid into concrete development.