Publication: Annual Address to the Board of Governors, September 7, 1964
Loading...
Date
1964-09-07
ISSN
Published
1964-09-07
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
George D. Woods, President of the World Bank and its affiliates, spoke about Japan as a vibrant example of both reconstruction and development. He briefly reported on developments in the World Bank Group of institutions during the past year, including partnership agreements with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and UNESCO. He indicated some of the principal preoccupations in the period ahead, such as a scarcity of good projects to support, large debt service burdens, and the next IDA replenishment. Finally, he concluded by saying a few words about developments in the world environment in which the Bank group operates and about the possible effect of those developments upon the role of the organizations.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Woods, George D.. 1964. Annual Address to the Board of Governors, September 7, 1964. World Bank Group Annual Meeting;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32036 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Annual Address to the Board of Governors, September 27, 1965(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1965-09-27)George D. Woods, President of the World Bank and its affiliates, spoke about raising living standards; the World Bank Group funds to financing development; efforts to encourage private international investment, and two special projects, namely, amendment of the Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC) charters and convention on the settlement of investment disputes; and two initiatives of the Bank, namely, a study, organized jointly by the International Coffee Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the Bank, and proposal put forward by the United Kingdom and Swedish delegations at the 1964 United Nations conference on trade and development.Publication Annual Address to the Board of Governors, September 25, 1967(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1967-09-25)George D. Woods, President of the World Bank Group, spoke about the following: the record of the World Bank Group's activities of the past fiscal year; finance for the International Development Association (IDA); education, teaching new skills, and cultivating new attitudes toward social and economic change; exports of the less developed countries; and the effectiveness of development finance.Publication Annual Address to the Board of Governors, September 26, 1966(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1966-09-26)George D. Woods, President of the World Bank Group, points out the activities well established by the Bank in its 20th year. He discusses: 1) International Development Association financing of education and agriculture, which includes among other things fertilizer components and plants, highways, irrigation, and credit for small agriculturists; 2) two projects aimed at increasing the willingness of the private entrepreneur and investor to venture abroad; 3) problems that confront economic developments; and 4) some specific achievements.Publication Annual Address to the Board of Governors, September 19, 1961(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1961-09-19)Eugene R. Black, President of the World Bank, bid farewell to Robert Garner, who presided over the birth of the International Finance Corporation and nursed it through its inevitable growing pains. He then focused on some old and some new problems, and, in particular, the newest member of the World Bank family, the International Development Association. IDA credits will have grace periods, long maturities, and low or no interest or commitment charges. Many IDA recipients have heavy foreign debt service burdens. He concluded by saying that the share of capital should increase that goes to the underdeveloped countries on terms properly geared to their requirements.Publication Address to the Board of Governors, Copenhagen, September 21, 1970(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1970-09-21)Robert S. McNamara, President of the World Bank Group, remarked that 1970 marked the beginning of the second quarter-century of the Bank’s existence, and prefaced the opening of second development decade. He sketched out the plans for maintaining the momentum of the Bank group's accelerated activity, stressed the need for fashioning a more comprehensive strategy for development, and welcomed the publication of the Pearson Commission report.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication World Development Report 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-08-01)Middle-income countries are in a race against time. Many of them have done well since the 1990s to escape low-income levels and eradicate extreme poverty, leading to the perception that the last three decades have been great for development. But the ambition of the more than 100 economies with incomes per capita between US$1,100 and US$14,000 is to reach high-income status within the next generation. When assessed against this goal, their record is discouraging. Since the 1970s, income per capita in the median middle-income country has stagnated at less than a tenth of the US level. With aging populations, growing protectionism, and escalating pressures to speed up the energy transition, today’s middle-income economies face ever more daunting odds. To become advanced economies despite the growing headwinds, they will have to make miracles. Drawing on the development experience and advances in economic analysis since the 1950s, World Development Report 2024 identifies pathways for developing economies to avoid the “middle-income trap.” It points to the need for not one but two transitions for those at the middle-income level: the first from investment to infusion and the second from infusion to innovation. Governments in lower-middle-income countries must drop the habit of repeating the same investment-driven strategies and work instead to infuse modern technologies and successful business processes from around the world into their economies. This requires reshaping large swaths of those economies into globally competitive suppliers of goods and services. Upper-middle-income countries that have mastered infusion can accelerate the shift to innovation—not just borrowing ideas from the global frontiers of technology but also beginning to push the frontiers outward. This requires restructuring enterprise, work, and energy use once again, with an even greater emphasis on economic freedom, social mobility, and political contestability. Neither transition is automatic. The handful of economies that made speedy transitions from middle- to high-income status have encouraged enterprise by disciplining powerful incumbents, developed talent by rewarding merit, and capitalized on crises to alter policies and institutions that no longer suit the purposes they were once designed to serve. Today’s middle-income countries will have to do the same.Publication Africa’s Resource Future(Washington DC : World Bank, 2023-04-03)This book examines the role for natural resource wealth in driving Africa’s economic transformation and the implications of the low-carbon transition for resource-rich economies. Resource wealth remains central to most Sub-Saharan African economies, and significant untapped potential is in the ground. Subsoil assets—such as metals, minerals, oil, and gas—are key sources of government revenues, export earnings, and development potential in most countries in the Africa region. Despite large reserves, success in converting subsoil wealth into aboveground sustainable prosperity has been limited. Since the decline in commodity prices in 2014, resource-rich Africa has grown more slowly than the region’s average growth rate. Finding ways to more effectively harness natural resource wealth to drive economic transformation will be central to Africa’s economic future. As the world moves away from fossil fuels in alignment with commitments under the Paris Agreement, Africa’s resource-rich countries face new risks and opportunities. Recent estimates suggest that 80 percent of the world’s proven fossil fuel reserves must remain underground to meet the Paris targets, and much of these stranded reserves may be in Africa. This issue of stranded assets and, relatedly, “stranded nations,” has major implications for the many African economies that are dependent on petroleum extraction and export. On the other hand, the energy transition will increase demand for raw material inputs involved in clean energy technologies. The transition from fossil fuels to clean energy may create demand by 2050 for 3 billion tons of minerals and metals that are needed to deploy solar, wind, and geothermal energy. How can African economies tap into these opportunities while managing the downside risk to their fossil fuel wealth? "Africa’s Resource Future" explores these themes and offers policy makers insights to help them navigate the coming years of uncertainty.Publication Poverty, Prosperity, and Planet Report 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-15)The Poverty, Prosperity, and Planet Report 2024 is the latest edition of the series formerly known as Poverty and Shared Prosperity. The report emphasizes that reducing poverty and increasing shared prosperity must be achieved in ways that do not come at unacceptably high costs to the environment. The current “polycrisis”—where the multiple crises of slow economic growth, increased fragility, climate risks, and heightened uncertainty have come together at the same time—makes national development strategies and international cooperation difficult. Offering the first post-Coronavirus (COVID)-19 pandemic assessment of global progress on this interlinked agenda, the report finds that global poverty reduction has resumed but at a pace slower than before the COVID-19 crisis. Nearly 700 million people worldwide live in extreme poverty with less than US$2.15 per person per day. Progress has essentially plateaued amid lower economic growth and the impacts of COVID-19 and other crises. Today, extreme poverty is concentrated mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa and fragile settings. At a higher standard more typical of upper-middle-income countries—US$6.85 per person per day—almost one-half of the world is living in poverty. The report also provides evidence that the number of countries that have high levels of income inequality has declined considerably during the past two decades, but the pace of improvements in shared prosperity has slowed, and that inequality remains high in Latin America and the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa. Worldwide, people’s incomes today would need to increase fivefold on average to reach a minimum prosperity threshold of US$25 per person per day. Where there has been progress in poverty reduction and shared prosperity, there is evidence of an increasing ability of countries to manage natural hazards, but climate risks are significantly higher in the poorest settings. Nearly one in five people globally is at risk of experiencing welfare losses due to an extreme weather event from which they will struggle to recover. The interconnected issues of climate change and poverty call for a united and inclusive effort from the global community. Development cooperation stakeholders—from governments, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to communities and citizens acting locally in every corner of the globe—hold pivotal roles in promoting fair and sustainable transitions. By emphasizing strategies that yield multiple benefits and diligently monitoring and addressing trade-offs, we can strive toward a future that is prosperous, equitable, and resilient.Publication Growth in the Middle East and North Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-16)This issue of the MENA Economic Update presents a summary of recent macroeconomic trends, including an update of the conflict centered in Gaza and its regional spillovers, alongside an analysis of factors that shape the long-term growth potential of the region, with special attention to the persistent effects of conflicts. A modest uptick in growth is forecast for 2024, which nonetheless masks important disparities within the region. The acceleration is driven by the high-income oil exporters, while growth is expected to decelerate among developing MENA countries, both developing oil exporters and developing oil importers. Despite current challenges, the region can dramatically boost growth by better allocating talent in the labor market, leveraging its strategic location, and promoting innovation. Closing the gender employment gap, rethinking the footprint of the public sector, and facilitating technology transfers through trade under enhanced data quality and transparency can help the region leap toward the frontier. Peace is a pre-condition for catching up to the frontier, as conflict can undo decades of progress, delaying economic development by generations.Publication World Development Report 2023: Migrants, Refugees, and Societies(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2023-04-25)Migration is a development challenge. About 184 million people—2.3 percent of the world’s population—live outside of their country of nationality. Almost half of them are in low- and middle-income countries. But what lies ahead? As the world struggles to cope with global economic imbalances, diverging demographic trends, and climate change, migration will become a necessity in the decades to come for countries at all levels of income. If managed well, migration can be a force for prosperity and can help achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. World Development Report 2023 proposes an innovative approach to maximize the development impacts of cross-border movements on both destination and origin countries and on migrants and refugees themselves. The framework it offers, drawn from labor economics and international law, rests on a “Match and Motive Matrix” that focuses on two factors: how closely migrants’ skills and attributes match the needs of destination countries and what motives underlie their movements. This approach enables policy makers to distinguish between different types of movements and to design migration policies for each. International cooperation will be critical to the effective management of migration.