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Visiting World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in Dhaka on Monday the bank is ready to provide necessary assistance, including financial aid, to Bangladesh for improving the living standard of the country\’s slum dwellers.

\”What I\’ve seen today (is that) the people have no access to necessary health facilities, education and electricity. I\’ve seen a lot of children who are not in school, this is really the biggest problem. If the government is willing, then the World Bank will come up with all types of cooperation,\” Iweala was quoted by private news agency UNB as saying.

Iweala said the children need to have schools for education, \” Otherwise Bangladesh will waste its potential generation.\”

She had a meeting with the slum dwellers in Dhaka during the visit when the people complained to her about their various problems, including lack of education and health services, serious accommodation crisis.

\”The government needs to help the poor people to secure places where they can live in. We can work with the government to find solutions to the existing problems,\” she said.

Iweala arrived in Bangladesh Sunday on a four-day visit to provide an in-depth view on key challenges facing the country.

(Xinhua News Agency March 18, 2008)

The World Bank has approved a loan of $100 million to help improve water supply and wastewater management in a major urban area of Anhui province.

The Bengbu integrated environment improvement project will focus on enhancing water management in the middle and lower reaches of the Huaihe River Basin.

The city of Bengbu – with a population of around 3.5 million – faces frequent flooding and industrial pollution, inadequate wastewater collection and treatment, and an unreliable water supply.

\”The project provides a package of activities that support the local government\’s efforts to address these difficult challenges,\” said project leader Wang Shenhua, a senior infrastructure specialist at the World Bank.

Specifically, the project will assist Bengbu to adopt a comprehensive water resources management approach through flood control, storm drainage, water supply, wastewater collection and environmental monitoring. It will also help initiate institutional reforms in its water sector.

To address industrial pollution, the project will introduce professional management services and load-based charges for industrial wastewater in a pilot industrial park. The aim is to replicate these approaches more widely if the model clicks, the multilateral agency said.

Efforts will be made to enhance cooperation between administrative districts and counties of Bengbu to optimize water infrastructure, it said.

The project covers Bengbu city proper and three satellite counties: Guzhen, Huaiyuan and Wuhe.

(China Daily March 13, 2008)

The World Bank Board has approved a 50 million-dollar grant to help reopen and maintain 1, 800 km of roads in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) as the country recovers from a decade of civil war.

The High Priority Roads Reopening and Maintenance (Pro-Routes) project is \”critical for the physical reunification, for achieving high, sustained and shared growth and for reconnecting the social fabric\” of the African country, said the World Bank in a statement released on Wednesday.

The 1,800 km of earth roads envisaged in three provinces out of eleven under this project will serve the highest populated areas and connect to a network of about 7,000 km of high-priority roads already funded by various donors, including the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank\’s soft lending arm.

The Pro-Routes project fits the road paving program to be funded by China either by connecting to it or by reopening sections that will be upgraded to paved standard, according to the World Bank.

\”This project complements the massive investments in roads announced by the Chinese and is an illustration of the extent to which donors are willing to join forces to achieve quick and significant results on the ground, in ways that improve harmonization, cut transaction costs and ensure that donors are aligned with the priorities defined by the country,\” said Marie-Francoise Marie-Nelly, the World Bank Country Director for DR Congo and Congo.

DR Congo has identified a high-priority road network of 15,800 km of which 9,135 km of unpaved roads have been targeted for fast reopening under reduced technical standards supported by this project. The financial needs for rehabilitating the high-priority network, without upgrading to paved standard, are estimated at 650 million dollars, said the World Bank.

(Xinhua News Agency March 20, 2008)

India is the top receiver of migrant remittances in 2007, followed by China and Mexico, said the World Bank\’s new Migration and Remittances Factbook 2008, released Wednesday.

The document also shows that while South-South migration nearly equals South-North migration, rich countries are still the main remittances source, led by the United States.

The top five recipients of migrant remittances in 2007 were India (27 billion dollars), China (25.7 billion dollars), Mexico ( 25 billion dollars), the Philippines (17 billion dollars), and France (12.5 billion dollars), according to the factbook.

For 2007, recorded remittances flows worldwide are estimated at 318 billion dollars, of which 240 billion dollars went to developing countries. These flows do not include informal channels, which would significantly enlarge the volume of remittances if they were recorded.

\”In many developing countries, remittances provide a life line for the poor,\” said Dilip Ratha, senior economist, and author of the factbook with Zhimei Xu. \”They are often an essential source of foreign exchange and a stabilizing force for the economy in turbulent times.\”

(Xinhua News Agency March 20, 2008)

The World Bank will provide 7 billion taka (about 1 million US dollars) for repairing Bangladesh\’ s flood-control dams damaged by cyclone Sidr and 3 billion taka (about 429,000 US dollars) for constructing shelter centers.

Visiting Managing Director of the World Bank Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala disclosed the aid plan while visiting the Sidr-affected Putuakhali district, 160 km south of capital Dhaka, on Wednesday, private news agency UNB reported.

The local people told the WB official how they saved themselves from the devastating cyclone that hit the country on November 15 last year. The cyclone left thousands people dead and millions homeless.

Iweala arrived in Dhaka on Sunday for a four-day visit to get an in-depth view on key challenges facing the country and its potential to overcome them.

(Xinhua News Agency March 20, 2008)

The World Bank has granted 38.4 million US dollars in loans to help northwest China\’s Gansu Province achieve sustainable tourism development, according to the bank.

The money will be used to restore and conserve nine natural and cultural heritage sites along the Gansu section of the Silk Road. It includes a section of the Great Wall, ancient housing, a geological park and Mount Maiji, home to numerous grottos, temples, frescos and sculptures, according to a press release from the bank.

A portion of the money will be used for training local officials and program managers related to the site conservation.

With a history of more than 2,000 years, the Silk Road began in Xi\’an, a historic city in northwest China. It passes through south and central Asia and winds its way to the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea and on to Rome – a total length of more than 7,000 kilometers. It served as an important bridge for economic and cultural exchange between the East and the West.

Once one of the world\’s main commercial arteries, the Silk Road still holds an immense attraction for thousands of travelers who now chart its course in search of adventure rather than trade.

(Xinhua News Agency March 24, 2008)

The World Bank Group on Wednesday approved a six million US dollars grant to support Cambodia\’s efforts to implement a national plan to minimize the threats from avian and human influenza, and to prepare its health systems to respond to any possible outbreak in the future.

The grant, provided by the International Development Association (IDA), will be used to finance the Avian and Human Influenza Control and Preparedness Emergency Project (AHICPEP), a press release said.

Designed in support of Cambodia\’s Comprehensive Avian and Human Influenza (AHI) National Plan, this project aims to help the government contain the spread of the H5N1 virus, reduce livelihood losses among commercial and backyard poultry growers, limit damage to the poultry industry, diminish the viral load in the environment and prevent or limit human morbidity as well as mortality, it added.

In addition to the IDA grant, the Government of Japan has provided a three million US dollars grant from its Policy and Human Resources Development (PHRD) Fund. A grant of two million US dollars was approved by the Avian and Human Influenza (AHI) Facility, a multidonor grant-making mechanism supported by the European Commission and eight other donors, it said.

Both grants will co-finance AHICPEP, the press release said, adding that the PHRD Fund and AHI Facility are both administered by the World Bank.

The combined 11 million US.dollars project will be implemented by units within the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Ministry of Health, and the National Committee for Disaster Management of Cambodia.

(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2008)

The World Bank (WB) cut its forecast for China\’s 2008 economic growth to 9.4 percent in a report released on Tuesday.

In February, it forecast 9.6 percent, down from the 10.8 percent prediction made in mid 2007.

Louis Kuijs, senior economist of the World Bank\’s Beijing office, said the latest adjustment was made purely out of concerns over external factors of the Chinese economy.

As the world economy had slowed more rapidly in the past two months, this had a negative impact on the growth of Chinese exports, he explained.

The bank also attributed its previous forecast revision in February to slowing external demand.

Kuijs said he was still optimistic about the domestic performance of the Chinese economy and was confident of expected powerful investment and robust consumption domestically.

The latest WB report said despite falling US import growth and rising volatility in global financial markets, China was expected to continue to perform strongly on rising domestic investment and consumption growth.

The latest forecast represented a big markdown from China\’s growth of 11.4 percent in 2007, the highest increase in 13 years and also the fifth year of double-digit growth.

The US economic slowdown, as well as its impact on the world economy, the soaring international prices for energy, industrial materials and agricultural products, and the country\’s increasing inflation pressure were key challenges faced by the Chinese economy, Kuijs said.

The WB report, \”East Asia and Pacific Update\”, is a six-month review of the region\’s economies.

It also said that growth in developing East Asia would fall by around 1 to 2 percentage points to around 8.5 percent in 2008 as a result of the unfolding financial turmoil in the United States and the resulting global slowdown.

Economies in the region, defined as comprising all low- and middle-income economies in East Asia, such as China, Indonesia and Malaysia, reported a combined 10.2 percent growth in 2007, the highest in a decade.

According to the report, East Asia, especially China, has increasingly become a \”growth pole\” in the world economy, acting as a counterweight to the slowing industrial economies.

\”The overall growth remains healthy across the East Asia and Pacific region,\” the bank said.

Most countries were well positioned to navigate the global slowdown on back of the investments they had made over the past 10 years in structural reforms and putting sound macroeconomic policies in place, it added.

It warned the real challenge for governments in the region was the inflationary effect of mounting food and fuel prices, especially the harsh burden imposed on the poor.

\”Dealing with high food and fuel prices probably constitutes a greater challenge to governments in East Asia than the financial turmoil in the United States and a slowing global economy,\” the bank said in the report.

\”In virtually every East Asian country, inflation is climbing to uncomfortable levels.\”

In China, the inflation rate, as gauged by the consumer price index (CPI), began to climb in the second half of last year on soaring food prices, especially in pork. The trend has continued into this year.

The country\’s CPI reached 8.7 percent in February, the biggest jump in nearly 12 years.

China has set \”the prevention of an overheating economy and (is) guarding against a shift from structural price rises to evident inflation\” as this year\’s top priorities for macroeconomic controls.

The government said last month that it aimed to maintain economic growth at 8 percent this year, while the inflation target was fixed at 4.8 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency April 1, 2008)

The World Bank (WB) has approved loans of US$441 million to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions from power plants in China, the China office of the WB said on Wednesday.

The loans, which account for almost one third of planned loans for China in fiscal 2008, would go to three projects, according to the lender.

The energy efficiency project, co-financed by the WB and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), would get a loan of US$200 million.

The project, which would also receive a grant of US$13.5 million from the GEF, aims to boost large-scale loans for energy efficiency programs in China.

It would enable China\’s commercial banks participating in the project, such as the Export-Import Bank of China and Huaxia Bank, to offer loans ranging from US$5 million to US$10 million for energy conservation projects, especially in heavy industries, the bank said.

A fuel gas desulfurization project in Shandong Province would be supported by a US$50 million loan, it said.

The desulfurization project would see the installation of gas desulfurization and sulphur dioxide control facilities in four coal-fired power plants in Shandong, one of China\’s top provincial coal consumers.

The project would also help local regulatory authorities to monitor and enforce their sulphur dioxide emission control targets.

The remaining US$191 million loan would be made to finance an infrastructure project in northeastern China\’s Liaoning Province to build more efficient central heating systems and reclaim waste heat from power generation and steel production.

\”Improving energy efficiency is a priority area for the WB\’s work in China,\” said David Dollar, the country director for China.

The bank would focus on energy efficiency, renewable and clean energy, urban heating and power supply efficiency to help China better meet its energy needs and reduce greenhouse emissions for more sustainable growth, he added.

The WB has helped finance seven projects in the areas of clean energy and energy efficiency in China since 1998, covering small-scale hydropower, wind power, biomass and energy efficiency in the manufacturing and building sectors.

As the world\’s second-largest energy user, China has set a target of a 20-percent reduction in energy intensity from 2006 to 2010 to improve its energy efficiency. But its energy intensity fell just 1.23 percent in 2006 and 3.27 percent last year, well below the annualized target.

(Xinhua News Agency May 28, 2008)

The World Bank said in Washington on Thursday that it will provide extra 1.2 billion dollars in grants and loans to help overcome the global food crisis.

To address immediate and longer-term food challenges, the Bank said it will boost its overall support for global agriculture and food to 6 billion dollars next year, up from 4 billion dollars in 2008, and will launch risk management tools and crop insurance to protect poor countries.

The 1.2 billion dollars, which are designed to address immediate needs, supports safety net programs such as food for work, conditional cash transfers, and school feeding programs for the most vulnerable, according to a press release.

The 185-nation lending institution is going to have a summit next week in Rome, Italy.

\”As we go into the Rome meeting next week, it is crucial that we focus on specific action\” because \”higher food prices are driving people and countries into danger,\” said Robert Zoellick, president of the Bank.

He said that aid should be provided to handle immediate humanitarian needs such as seeing that pregnant women receive proper nutrition and children at school are fed.

Longer-term help should go to small farmers to include seed and fertilizer for the next planting season so they can increase their harvests, he said.

\”Along with our partners, these initiatives will help address the immediate danger of hunger and malnutrition for the two billion people struggling to survive in the face of rising food prices and contribute to a longer-term solution that must involve many countries and institutions,\” the president said.

Internationally, overall food prices have risen 83 percent in three years, according to the Bank.

(Xinhua News Agency May 30, 2008)