World Bank lays the “first stone” of its reform to increase lending capacity

He world Bank Laid the cornerstone of a reform Wednesday that should increase its ability to lend to poor and developing countries to help them tackle climate change as the institution prepares to change its president in the coming weeks.

“Our member countries approved measures that could add up to US$50 billion to the lending capacity of the IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a subsidiary of the World Bank) over the next 10 years”, announced the president of the organization, David Malpass, in a statement on Wednesday night.

These changes have been adopted during the development committee of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which brings together 25 finance ministers.

They must allow the world Bank have additional means to help poor and developing countries, in particular through increased mobilization of private funds.

“The importance of concessional resources (loans from the World Bank) and private sector investment is fully recognized. It continues to be well below the needs in resources for development and climate. Responding to those needs will require a global effort.he added malpass.

The reform of the World Bank (WB), born at the Bretton Woods conference of 1944, as well as of the development banks in general, was launched in October under the impetus of some of its member countries, such as the United States.

important stages

A “supplementary construction work“must be done now”to cross important stages” before the next meetings of the IMF and the WB that will take place in October in Morocco, said the Minister of Finance of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Hadi Al Hussaini, also a member of the bank, in another statement.

While the organism works on “a work plan with detailed measures”, further provisions should be made during the international conference on financial aid for southern countries, on June 22-23 in Paris.

The reform is carried out while the World Bank must change its president, after the resignation of Malpass, accused – among other things – of not acting enough against climate change.

Only one candidate is running to replace him: Indian-American Ajay Banga.

While the Secretary to the Treasury of the United States, Janet Yellen, asked “supplementary reforms”, the French Minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire, considered that there is a “historic opportunity” to provide the necessary resources to developing countries that are “the first to suffer from the economic crisis and inflation.”

The IMF and the WB also announced work that seeks to speed up the long-awaited process of restructuring the debt of low-income and emerging countries.

However, the bank’s statement does not specifically mention China, one of the main creditors of these countries, which is accused of a lack of transparency and willingness to restructure these debts.