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China Calls for Support to Low, Middle Income Countries
China urged the World Bank and developed countries here Monday to support low and middle income countries for their economic development.
"The World Bank should take into full consideration of individual countries' circumstances and their specific needs when formulating and implementing its operational policies," said Jin Liqun, Vice Minister of Finance of China, at the 63rd Meeting of the Development Committee, the policy-setting group of the World Bank.
The World Bank has recently formulated a strategy for its assistance to middle-income countries. However, the Bank's classification of middle-income countries under the strategy does not fully reflect the broad spectrum of economic differences in this group, Jin said.
The World Bank's policy diagnosis should be conducted in consultation with developing countries, fully respecting country ownership, and the diagnosis should also be consistent with World Bank's mandates, and relevant laws and regulations of client countries, the Chinese official said.
He asked the World Bank to take concrete actions as early as possible to trim down its excessive policy requirements on lending operations so as to lower cost, enhance effectiveness and reverse the current trend of decline in lending volume.
On support for low-income countries, Jin said developed countries, in addition to their efforts for debt relief, should provide additional official development assistance (ODA) to Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) countries for poverty reduction. "Major developed countries should increase their ODA to 0.7 percent of gross national product (GNP), a long-standing target set forth by the United Nations," he added.
Referring to trade and development, Jin said developed countries should fulfill their obligations specified in the Uruguay Round Agreement, eliminate all kinds of trade protections as soon as possible, and further open their markets to developing countries so as to promote development and achieve common prosperity.
"We support multilateral development institutions, including the World Bank, for their involvement in helping developing countries with their research on how to secure equal opportunities and benefits from the trade liberalization," the Chinese official said.
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