10. Speeches of World Bank Presidents [collection under construction]

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Remarks by World Bank Group President David Malpass at the Future of Digital Cooperation Event: Building Resilience Through Safe, Trusted, and Inclusive Digital Public Infrastructure

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-09-21) Malpass, David

This report discusses the readout from World Bank Group President David Malpass’s meeting at the Future of Digital Cooperation Event: Building Resilience Through Safe, Trusted, and Inclusive Digital Public Infrastructure. There have been severe reversals in development, and global policy trends suggest these will persist. Digital public infrastructure is a vital part of our response. Digital identification, payment, and data sharing platforms have made it possible for countries to respond more effectively, more transparently, at a greater speed and scale, and with more security and privacy. The World Bank Group is engaged across all these elements and our operations with significant digital components have been growing. Our portfolio stands at nearly 4.7 billion dollars. Through country engagements, we support our clients to boost mobile phone networks and remove regulatory barriers to foster access to finance. We are helping with the adoption of e-government platforms and the modernization of social protection systems. Our Global Findex database shows that 71 percent of adults in developing economies now have a formal financial account, often a bank account, compared to 42 percent a decade ago. It is critical to build on this trend. Expanding access to finance, reducing the cost of digital transactions, and channeling wage payments and social transfers through accounts will be critically important to mitigate the reversals in development from the ongoing turbulence.
Remarks at the IDA20 Replenishment Meeting

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-12-15) Malpass, David

World Bank Group President David Malpass noted that Japan is now one of the largest contributors to IDA, a key partner in achieving development results at the global, regional, and country level. He mentioned that for more than 60 years, IDA has provided concessional development financing totaling more than US$458 billion to 114 countries to boost economic growth, reduce poverty and inequality, and improve people’s living conditions.  He highlighted that the World Bank’s crisis response to COVID-19 has been the largest in its history, and IDA responded with speed and scale to the unprecedented economic and health crises and committed US$56.9 billion between April 2020 and November 2021.  He expressed his appreciation to the IDA Borrower Representatives who have consistently offered their advice, providing a country lens on how the support can best be tailored to meet the needs and priorities of IDA countries. He spoke about the generous pledges that are matched by the most ambitious IDA policy package. He concluded by saying that cross-cutting issues are the foundational building blocks of this policy framework. These include crisis preparedness, which was introduced in IDA20 to build resilience in a world of more frequent crises with compounded effects, as well as ongoing emphasis on governance and institutions, debt sustainability, and digital infrastructure and interventions to foster economic and social inclusion.
Remarks at Media Roundtable during Annual Meetings 2021

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-10-11) Malpass, David

World Bank Group President David Malpass discussed a broad range of development issues, including the economic outlook, growth, vaccines, debt, climate, and trade. World Bank financing operations will be addressed at the annual meeting as well as our climate change action plan, which aims to help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improve adaptation. We expect global growth of 5.7 percent in 2021 and 4.4 percent in 2022, these are very similar to our projections in the June Global Economic Prospects report. Incoming high-frequency data point to slowing momentum in global activity amid persistent supply chain bottlenecks and COVID-19 surges. Moreover, the global recovery remains dramatically uneven. The outlook is challenging for much of the developing world with lagging vaccination rates, rising inflation, limited policy support, too few jobs, and shortages that extend to food, water, and electricity. As of mid-2021, over half of IDA countries, those are the world’s poorest countries, are in external debt distress or at high risk of it. A comprehensive approach, including debt reduction, swifter restructuring and more transparency is needed to help countries assess and manage their external debt risks and work toward sustainable debt levels and terms. These are fundamental to supporting health systems, education, and infrastructure and creating growth, investment, and prosperity. Enhanced and accelerated implementation of the Common Framework will be critical in achieving this much-needed debt transparency and sustainability.
Remarks at the Western and Central Africa Regional Media Roundtable

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-05-20) Malpass, David

World Bank Group President David Malpass spoke about the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has taken a toll on African lives, economies, and livelihoods. The World Bank intends to invest and mobilize about $150 billion over the next five years in Africa to support the continent’s recovery from the pandemic and its long-term development. He urged countries that expect to have excess vaccine supplies to release their excess as soon as possible to developing countries that have delivery programs in place. He emphasized the need for greater transparency in contracts between governments, pharmaceutical companies, and organizations that are involved in vaccine production and delivery so that financing can be directed effectively, and countries can plan for receipt and deployment. The World Bank yesterday launched a comprehensive online portal that provides easy access to information about their projects, including individual country-financing operations. He spoke about comprehensive debt solutions which will involve at least four elements: debt suspension, debt reduction, debt resolution, and debt transparency. He stated that without private creditors fully onboard, the Common Framework will not deliver a sustainable solution for Chad, Ethiopia, or Zambia. As countries work to recover, tackling climate change will be key for the region. The Bank is also working to address fragility, conflict, and violence. He concluded that while we know that the road to recovery will be long, countries in the region have applied lessons from previous crisis such as the West Africa Ebola outbreak in 2014, and many countries have strengthened their social safety nets to help protect the poor that have been most affected by the crisis, and to move faster on key reforms and investments that will be crucial for long-term development.
World Bank Group Press Conference at the 2021 Spring Meetings, April 7, 2021

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-04-07) Malpass, David

David Malpass, President of the World Bank, discussed vaccines, climate, and debt. The World Bank commitments grew a record amount both in percent terms and dollar terms in 2020. The Bank is providing financing for several of the countries and they can be large-scale programs, but the countries are working to arrange delivery schedules from the various vaccine providers. That will be an important part of the recovery. The Bank completed a big vaccination operation through Board, which makes financing available to Bangladesh and also technical assistance from the World Bank, which is very helpful to the countries as they try to enter contract discussions, and also as they work within their health systems in order to vaccinate people. The Bank is working actively on biodiversity and agricultural challenges facing Brazil.
Remarks at Session 1 of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting, February 26, 2021

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-02-26) Malpass, David

David Malpass, President of the World Bank, declared that inequality, poverty, and climate change will be the defining issues of our age. The goal is to achieve fair, broad, and fast access to effective and safe vaccines for developing countries. On climate, the Bank is looking forward to supporting the G20 on the very active climate agenda, including at the Venice climate summit in July. Debt transparency and sustainability remain major challenges for vulnerable countries. Each of these priorities - vaccines, climate, and debt - is plagued with inequality, which is causing a reversal of progress on development.
Confronting the Economic and Financial Challenges of Covid-19: A Conversation with World Bank Group President David Malpass

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-12-14) Malpass, David

World Bank Group President, David Malpass spoke about how the past four weeks the World Bank has begun to implement twelve billion-dollar package that would enable vaccination systems for countries that otherwise wouldn't have access, and that was the goal. He explained the assessment of the countries and their ability to deliver vaccines. He mentioned one of the big challenges for the world is how to create systems where people that are poor can build assets. One of the most valuable assets that people have is education, and the second is an actual job. The World Bank wants to amplify social safety nets around the world to get cash or other kinds of support to the poor. That has been a challenge. The debt crisis has been a challenge because you can identify countries where the World Bank would put in resources but all of that would go to creditors, and none of it to the people. Once the grace period runs out for Bank loans, in reality it is a loan that is not going to be paid, and some of the banking systems will come under pressure from domestic debt. One of the challenges that the G20 faces is how to get broad debt relief to countries that were over-indebted. He plugged for trade facilitation. The most important thing for economic development is to quickly get things across borders.
Remarks at China’s 1+6 Roundtable with Premier Li Keqiang

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-11-24) Malpass, David

World Bank Group President David Malpass spoke about the broad, rapid, and affordable access to Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines which will be at the core of a resilient economic recovery that lifts everyone. He mentioned that the World Bank Group’s forty-year engagement with China has been mutually beneficial and continues to evolve. He thanked China for its large contribution to IDA19, which is particularly noteworthy given China’s stage of development. He highlighted on the lending relationship with China which is also evolving steadily, with a strong focus on analytical and advisory services and strong engagement from the International Finance Corporation. He expressed that China’s economy needs further reform to get the most benefit as it returns to sustained growth. China’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) economic policy response has been weighted towards supporting firms and banks and encouraging public investment, in relative terms, while direct transfers to households have been limited. Greening of China’s growth going forward should form a core objective of the fourteenth five-year plan. Regarding progress on debt relief and transparency, he mentioned that private creditors have not been participating, leaving official bilateral creditors shouldering much of the burden.
Remarks to the World Food Programme Executive Board

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-11-16) Malpass, David

World Bank Group President David Malpass spoke about how in its first year, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is pushing one hundred fifty million people into extreme poverty, ending two decades of steady progress on poverty reduction. Coronavirus (COVID-19) has altered every aspect of commercial activity and trade, shrinking gross domestic products (GDP), fueling a debt crisis and triggering severe food crises. He cautioned about the long-standing problems in the global food system, and how World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has estimated that the number of people facing acute food insecurity will double to two hundred sixty-five million people in 2020. He spoke about working along with IMF on effective approaches for debt reduction and debt resolution to address low income countries’ unsustainable debt burdens. He highlighted on establishing a fast-track Coronavirus (COVID) response that has delivered emergency support to one hundred twelve countries so far. He explained that in response to the global food security crisis, the World Bank Group has significantly stepped up investments to strengthen food security in client countries.
Speech at the 2020 Annual Meetings Plenary

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-10-15) Malpass, David

David Malpass, President of the World Bank, spoke about what the World Bank Group has accomplished since last year’s Annual Meetings, particularly the response to COVID-19 and progress made on debt transparency. The COVID-19 pandemic’s toll has been enormous, and people in the poorest countries are likely to suffer the longest and hardest. In response, the approach at the World Bank Group has been comprehensive, focused on saving lives, protecting the poor and vulnerable, working toward sustainable business growth, and rebuilding in better ways. He touched on the four most urgent aspects of this work: 1) poverty and inequality; 2) human capital; 3) debt burdens; and 4) fostering an inclusive and resilient recovery. The scale of the challenges ahead is staggering. IDA-19’s three-year envelope of USD82 billion will not be nearly enough to meet the needs of the world’s poorest countries at this desperate time. IDA has taken broad and fast action to frontload IDA-19 resources and provide surge financing this year to support the initial efforts to address the economic and health impacts of COVID. A USD25 billion supplemental COVID emergency financing package will avert a “financing cliff” in FY22-23 and make available additional resources to IDA countries to support their recoveries.