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The international financial architecture is ‘skewed in favor of rich and creditor countries’, the World Bank said yesterday.
President of the bank, David Malpass exposed the partial state of the architecture at the close of the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings 2021 Development Committee meeting, in Washington D.C. yesterday.
He said the disturbing state of the global financial system was exposed last year by the COVID-19 pandemic, which made challenges and staggering needs of every country’s economy even clearer.
Malpass said: “One major challenge is that the current international financial architecture is heavily skewed in favor of the rich and creditor countries. It is ever important that all voices are heard. I urge all of us to consider how we can restore growth in developing countries and help reverse the growing inequality, in terms of access to vaccinations, unsustainable debt, and adverse climate impacts.”
According to him, the bank is developing a better line of sight forward, and the collective efforts to poverty, climate change, and inequality will be the defining choices of this age.
“Now is the time to move urgently toward opportunities and solutions that achieve sustainable and broad-based economic growth without harming climate, degrading the environment, or leaving hundreds of millions of families in poverty,” Malpass said.
He also expressed the hope that World Trade Organisation (WTO) will facilitate effective global trade deals under the watch of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala The is its Director-General,
He said: “I would also like to acknowledge our former World Bank colleague, now Director-General of the WTO, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is joining us today. It is a point of pride that we have IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and Ngozi – two good friends and women who have previously been members of the World Bank team – leading our sister institutions and playing critical global roles in the development agenda today.”
“I had the privilege of hearing strong presentations by both these women leaders at the IMFC meeting. With Ngozi as a champion, we’re looking forward to having a strong focus on trade facilitation and development in future Development Committee meetings.”
Malpass said the Development Committee plays an essential and unique role in the international cooperation architecture.
“I have said this before – it is the only forum in which the governments of developed countries and developing countries, creditor countries and borrower countries, come together with a primary focus development and resource needs for developing countries.”
He said the World Bank goal on COVID-19 was to act quickly and to help as many countries as possible to respond to the pandemic.
This post was written by Chinedu Ibeakanma.
The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.