World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz arrived in Oslo over the weekend, where he was met by both government leaders and demonstrators.
Wolfowitz responded to demonstrator demands to eliminate debt to developing countries by saying that he could not promise debt eradication for all countries, noting that each case is unique. But in most cases, he said, it should be possible “to find a way” to erase the debt.
– What was positive, was that he said that countries which had dictatorships that took money out of the country and placed it in foreign banks should get that money back, Kjetil Abildsnes, a debt eradication activist with the group Slett U-landsgjelda, said. Examples included Rwanda and Liberia.
Wolfowitz met Sunday with Erik Solheim, a former UN envoy who is now Norways government minister in charge of foreign aid, and representatives of around 60 Norwegian organizations and research groups.
He also presented the World Banks plan to boost womens economic influence in poor countries, a four-year effort backed by 24,5 million US dollar in funding.
Wolfowitz traveled to Norway in connection with an anti-corruption conference -the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative – that runs through Tuesday.
In related news,Norways foreign minister warned that achieving financial transparency in the murky world of oil and other national resources has become more important, but also more difficult in the past two years.
As the oil price has trebled, governments of oil-rich states, Russia, Venezuela and Bolivia, have wrested more control over their precious resources from international companies, and willingness to disclose the revenue stream they have created has diminished.
Johnas Gark Store, Norways foreign minister, said:
– It is all the more important and challenging when you are dealing more and more with governments and national oil companies that have the tendency to be more secretive.
At the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) meeting in Oslo governments and companies are expected to develop voluntary reporting standards that would hold governments and oil companies to account over how much they are paid for their resources.
Norway is widely seen as the only energy-rich country not to have the curse of corruption and poverty, and is likely to take over the leadership role of the EITI from the UK, which founded it in 2002. Many of the worlds 3,5 billion poor people live in resource-rich countries.
Paul Wolfowitz will discuss development priorities in Europe this week with big donor countries. For Wolfowitz, the visit to Oslo, Geneva and Paris is “to compare notes with development partners on their priorities”.
But Bank officials said he also would seek to mend divides, especially with France, which is among the big European nations that have opposed his methods of tackling corruption.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
