World leaders should support development and give hope to young people who account for half of the worlds population instead of spending hundreds of billions of dollars on defense, the World Bank chief said on Tuesday, according to the World Bank press review.
– At the moment, we are spending 900 billion US dollar a year on defense and 50 to 60 billion dollar a year only on development, said World Bank Group President James Wolfensohn.
Speaking at the Banks second international conference on youth, development and peace in Sarajevo, he said that developing countries accounted for five billion out of six billion people on the planet.
– The problem is not going to go away. If the world focuses on the problem of poverty…we have it in our power to fix it over a period of time, Wolfensohn said. – We have resources to do it but you need the will to do it, he added.
– We have 300 billion US dollar that is being spent on agricultural subsidies that could be used for more positive purposes, he told the conference of some 170 young people from 83 countries.
Wolfensohn also said that education and employment were the biggest problems for youth across the world. Supporting and working with young people were key strategies for combating poverty and enhancing human development.
According to a study in August by the International Labor Office (ILO), youth unemployment reached an all-time high with 88 million unemployed people aged 15 to 24. Wolfensohn added that the World Bank had brought about the forgiveness of close to 50 billion US dollar of poor nations debts under its debt relief program.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
