Fuente : World Bank
http://www.worldbank.org

Also In This Edition: Small Island Nations Appeal For Preferential Access To International Markets; World Bank Names Pamela Cox As Its New Latin America Vice President; Also Reports; and Briefly Noted...

/noticias.info/ Small Island Nations Appeal For Preferential Access To International Markets.Small island nations need preferential access to lucrative markets in rich nations to encourage economic growth and combat rising poverty, Anthony Severin, St. Lucia's ambassador to the Caribbean Community, told the United Nations ongoing International Meeting to Review the Implementation of the Program of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island (SIDS), reports The Associated Press.

In addition, countries would need soft loans to finance efforts to improve infrastructure, encourage trade and diversify their economies. Small island economies often depend heavily on exporting goods and services, Severin said. But because many small island nations are located far from major markets, they must deliver their goods by sea or air, making them economically vulnerable with high transport costs. He appealed for preferential access to international markets in order to offset the disadvantage.

Reuters reports that delegates said trade preferences were a sticking point in negotiations on Tuesday, but western nations had agreed to help islands diversify their industries. Some island diplomats viewed that as a positive recognition of the islands' economic vulnerability. High transport costs because of the islands' remoteness, limited resources and small production capacity put them at a disadvantage to large low-cost producers like India and China, who can flood lucrative western markets with cheaper goods. Pierre Encontre, an economist from UN Conference on Trade and Development said: "The erosion of preferences could wipe out the economies of small island producers as many have a uni-sector economy. Already, competition from central America is seriously hampering the economies for banana producers in the Caribbean and the opening of markets to Chinese textiles has witnessed the loss of over 10,000 jobs in Mauritius," he said.

PACNEWS further reports the conference will also concentrate on health issues including HIV/AIDS and malaria in small island developing states. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said small island nations must address HIV/AIDS because it could devastate their skilled workforce and take a severe toll on their economies. Papua New Guinea has the highest reported rate of HIV infections in the Pacific.

World Bank Names Pamela Cox As Its New Latin America Vice President. The World Bank has tapped Pamela Cox to be its new vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean, the multilateral lender said Tuesday, Dow Jones reports.

Pamela Cox was previously the World Bank's Director of Strategy and Operations for Africa for four years, and prior to that served as Country Director for South Africa and other African countries. She replaces David de Ferranti. "I am struck by how much progress the countries of the region have made over recent years - on political transitions, reforming governance and strengthening economic management," Cox was quoted as saying. "At the same time, poverty and inequality remain pervasive across the region, and I see enormous continuing scope for the World Bank to work with its clients on attacking these deep-seated challenges."

Reuters reports that Cox will visit countries in the region over the next few weeks, starting on Jan. 17 with Brazil and followed on Jan. 20 by Grenada, where she will meet government and development officials.

The Latin America News Digest, Business News Americas, Yahoo! Argentina, Reporte 98.5 (Mexico City Radio), El Economista.com (Mexico), El Mercurio (Chile), El Universal (México), Notimex, AGENCIA TELAM (Argentina) all report on Cox’ nomination.

Also Report…Attacking the industrialized countries for agricultural protectionism which was hurting the economies of poor nations, the World Bank has stressed that global trade liberalization was critical for reducing poverty in developing countries, reports Asia Pulse and The Press Trust of India Limited. In a new report "Global Agricultural Trade and Developing Countries", the World Bank said high barriers that protect the agricultural sectors of industrialized and some middle-income nations hurt the economies of poor countries which were unable to raise exports despite the rise in farm productivity. Growth in agriculture has a disproportionately positive effect on poverty reduction, because more than two-thirds of the population in developing countries live in rural areas where poverty is highest, World Bank Chief Economist Francois Bourguignon said while releasing the report. Developing countries have been improving agricultural productivity, but the impact of these gains on poverty reduction will not be fully realized unless richer countries reduce their agricultural trade protection, it said. Without such liberalization, increased productivity will lead to overproduction and price declines for many commodities, undermining poor countries' efforts to expand exports, the report said.


La Tribune (France) writes the World Bank report created a disturbance in the current round of WTO agriculture negotiations for the study denounces industrialized countries’ protectionism less than a month before the Doha Round trade talks are set to resume. The bank indicates that subsidies and rich countries’ trade barriers are muting developing countries’ efforts to liberalize their own agriculture sector. The Bank notes that seventy percent of the population in developing countries lives in rural areas.

News Press (France) also reports on the World Bank study.

Briefly Noted…The Guardian (UK) reports the British Conservatives on Tuesday promised to match the government's spending on international aid but said they would trim GBP800 million of waste from the aid budget and redirect it towards the world's poorest. They said they would direct aid through non-governmental bodies and civil society groups rather than the EU or World Bank. In a speech to the Centre for Social Justice, shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin said a Conservative government would match Labour's plans to raise the Department for International Development's budget from GBP4.5 billion to pounds 5.3 billion by 2007/08 and would boost aid spending to 0.7 percent of gross domestic product by 2013.

AFX reports Indonesia's creditor nations under the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI) will meet during January 19-20 in Jakarta, a World Bank official said. World Bank spokesman in Jakarta Mohamad Al-Arief said the CGI will also discuss reconstruction efforts for the tsunami hit province of Aceh. However no special pledging session is planned for Aceh, he said. He said Aceh's reconstruction funding needs were covered by the emergency tsunami summit in Jakarta last week.

The Financial Times reports the Pakistani government Tuesday said it was planning to appeal to the World Bank to mediate a controversy with India over its construction of a dam in the disputed state of Kashmir. The move would be the first time either country has invoked the involvement of third-party arbitration under the 44-year-old Indus Waters Treaty. Under the treaty, which many in the international community hold up as a model of water-sharing co-operation, both countries must agree to any construction that would affect the flow of the six rivers that traverse both countries. Pakistani officials yesterday said they had three times before been dissuaded by New Delhi from seeking World Bank arbitration on the Baglihar dam, only for the subsequent bilateral talks to fail. Pakistan left some flexibility yesterday to withdraw its threat of appealing to the World Bank.

Agence France Presse adds India said Tuesday that further talks could narrow differences with Pakistan over the construction of a dam in the disputed state of Kashmir. Water officials from the two neighbors met last week in New Delhi to discuss their drawn-out row about the Baglihar Dam in India's section of the divided Himalayan territory, but failed to agree. Indian foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said New Delhi wanted to continue the talks.

Business Day (South Africa) reports the IFC says it is close to signing a deal to provide financing for a black economic empowerment transaction in the financial services sector. The deal is likely to be FirstRand's sale of 10 percent of its business to the empowerment groups Kagiso Trust, Mineworkers Investment Trust, WDB Trust and FirstRand Empowerment Trust, in a deal worth R6,8 billion. A proposal to the IFC to partly finance the FirstRand empowerment transaction was considered by the corporation's board on December 10, according to its website. The IFC's associate director for sub-Saharan Africa, Thierry Tanoh, said yesterday that it would finance between $30 million and $40 million of the deal, and the transaction was likely to be concluded by the end of this month. The corporation, which has a total of $225 million invested in SA, aims to boost its exposure to the country by between $50 million and $150 million each year.

The Wall Street Journal reports the World Bank said last year that Slovakia did more than any other nation to improve its business environment in 2003. The changes included cutting the time it takes to start a business nearly in half, introducing flexible working hours, opening a private credit registry and, through a new collateral law, reducing the time to recover debt by three-quarters. To be sure, it still takes 50 days on average to start a business in Slovakia, compared with five days in the US and 18 days in Britain, according to the World Bank -- and unemployment remains high at 18 percent.

The Wall Street Journal reports the US and European Union took a step back from the brink of a potentially huge and damaging trade war by agreeing to start negotiations on eliminating subsidies to aircraft makers. The two sides have been arguing in the World Trade Organization since October and were two days away from the deadline for launching a full WTO trade case. Had either side taken that step, the battle over subsidies to Europe's Airbus and Chicago-based Boeing Co. would have been the largest case handled by the WTO. Instead, the US and EU agreed to begin three months of intensive negotiations on eliminating subsidies to both companies. Both sides agreed to avoid making new government aid commitments to the manufacturers during the talks and to avoid calling for litigation in the WTO unless the talks break down.

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