WRAP World Bank briefing, security, earlier breakfast meeting
(17 Apr 2005) 1. Various exteriors of World Bank, police and security presence 2. Development Committee breakfast meeting 3. Two shot of Sadakazu Tanigaki from Japan with Thomas Bernes - Executive Secretary of the Development Committee - pan to two shot of Trevor Manuel, South African Finance Minister and Committee Chairman, and Fathallah Oualalou, Moroccan Finance Minister 4. World Bank President James Wolfensohn enters 5. Wide shot as Oualalou sits down and brings meeting to order 6. Wide shot of Development Committee news conference 7. SOUNDBITE (English): Francois Bourguignon, Senior Vice President - Development Economics, World Bank: "We must admit that many countries are off-track and that some huge efforts are really needed if we are meet the goal. Let me give some example of that. If we look at the undefined category, we realise that only 33 countries today in the world, among developing countries, are on track to have this reduction by two-thirds." 8. Cutaway reporters 9. SOUNDBITE (English): Eric Swanson, Program Manager, World Development Indicators Management: "Many of these people are vulnerable to economic shocks and to natural disasters which could send them back to below the dollar a day. And, in many countries, frankly, two dollars a day is considered extremely poor. All of these people have aspirations of doing better. So, this is our next challenge. We need to deal with poverty in Africa, but we need to look ahead and say, even poverty at two dollars a day will remain a development challenge." 10. Wide shot of news conference STORYLINE: Concluding two days of talks, finance officials from the leading economic powers pressed ahead Sunday on efforts to wipe out poor nations' debts and hoped to complete a deal later this year. At the same time, following a meeting of the Development Committee of the World Bank, the view on economic development around the world was not positive. The committee announced that the majority of poor countries are off-track in reaching the Millennium Goals for ending poverty in 2015. Members of the committee also reported that there is concern that many poor countries could quickly be overwhelmed by natural disasters or economic upheaval in the developed world. In other meetings, erasing the crushing debt load on developing countries was among the issues discussed by finance representatives at the meetings of the 184-nation World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Under a US approach, the poorest countries would not have to repay loans to the World Bank, the IMF and the African Development Bank. The Bush administration also wants future aid to come in the form of grants, which do not have to be repaid, rather than loans. Critics say that deprives the lending institutions of additional money to compensate for loan repayments no longer required. Grants often also come with a raft of stipulations regarding how and to whom relevant money may be paid. A proposal by Great Britain relies on a greater financial commitment to the World Bank and the IMF by rich nations. Some outside advocates want the IMF to sell part of its massive gold reserves to pay for the debt relief, but the United States does not favour that. US and British officials sought to play down their differences and said they were encouraged by developments over the weekend. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
