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Pointing to ''mixed report card'', Secretary-General urges UN partners to step up efforts to implement development financing commitments -- Part 2 of 2.

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M2 PRESSWIRE-31 October 2003-UN: Pointing to 'mixed report card', Secretary-General urges UN partners to step up efforts to implement development financing commitments -- Part 2 of 2(C)1994-2003 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

RDATE:10302003

JAMES WOLFENSOHN, President of the World Bank, noted that today was the first time the Bank's President had addressed the Assembly on any subject. But the financing for development partnership made continued cooperation and coordination between the two bodies critical. By way of early observation, he said the Assembly's work, debates and discussions on issues, such as sustainable development, poverty eradication and the environment following Monterrey, had given the Bank and other international financial institutions a good idea of where the implementation process stood.

And while there had been slight increases in ODA following Monterrey, and some significant resource flows had been identified during the past year, it was really no secret that much remained to be done if the aims of Monterrey were to be met, he said. The incentive to meet the objectives of the Monterrey Consensus was the making of a better world for everyone. The industrialized countries must lead the way by living up to past commitments. But again, with the failure of the WTO recent Cancun round, lagging development assistance and abiding inequities in the international trade system, it was clear that more cooperation, dialogue and action were needed.

The World Bank was particularly concerned with the imbalances that existed, especially regarding the amounts of assistance provided to developing countries. The statistics were troubling, such as instances in which some $800 billion had been spent for defence budgets while only $56 billion went to development assistance. It was necessary for all countries and international institutions to increase their effectiveness, and to build a more coordinated effort. The Bank's desire was to work closely with the United Nations system and its friends in civil society and the private sector. He believed that there had been progress, but much remained to be done.

HORST KO:HLER, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said that, with the firming of prospects for a recovery in the advanced economies, led by developments in the United States, the global economic outlook was improving. That was good news for emerging market and developing country economies, as well, which had also benefited from a supportive financial market environment. But he cautioned that risks remained; chief among them were the excessive dependence of the world economy on growth in the United States and the resulting global current account imbalances.

He believed resolving those imbalances in an orderly manner should be the primary objective of international economic policy. That required a cooperative approach involving all major countries and regions. Such an approach had to strengthen the domestic forces of growth, particularly in Europe and Japan, building on the new momentum for structural reform. Sound and...

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