Студопедия

КАТЕГОРИИ:

АстрономияБиологияГеографияДругие языкиДругоеИнформатикаИсторияКультураЛитератураЛогикаМатематикаМедицинаМеханикаОбразованиеОхрана трудаПедагогикаПолитикаПравоПсихологияРиторикаСоциологияСпортСтроительствоТехнологияФизикаФилософияФинансыХимияЧерчениеЭкологияЭкономикаЭлектроника


The World Bank




The World Bank is a group of four institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), established in 1945; the International Finance Corporation (IFC), established in 1956; the International Development Association (IDA), established in 1960; and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), established in 1988.

The World Bank is one of the major channels through which development aid is passed from the industrial West to the poor and developing nations of the world. Its scale of operations is vast, which is why its lending programme exceeds $7 billion a year, and its workforce numbers about 4, 500.

In the last decade, important changes have taken place in the size of the Bank's operations and in the emphasis of its lending policies. Few people would deny, furthermore, that the President of the Bank, Mr Robert McNamara, has played an important role in bringing about the changes.

What immediately strikes anyone looking at the lending figures over the last ten years is the tremendous expansion in the Bank's loan programme. This has increased from $1 billion to nearly $7 billion. Thе figure includes 'hard loans' which are made at current rates of interest, and 'soft loans' which are allocated to poor countries at concessionary rates, and usually channelled through the Bank's affiliate, the International Development Association (IDA).

In deciding the emphasis of its lending policy, the Bank has had to take into account the 'population explosion' which is occurring in many poor countries of the world. It is a fact that the fertility rate of poor countries is often very high. This is one of the main reasons for these countries remaining poor.

Unfortunately, wide-ranging contraception programmes do not usually reduce this rate because there is a strong and deeply rooted tradition among people in these countries to have big families. The large family unit, it is believed, brings greater financial stability.

What the Bank discovered — this was a revolutionary idea — was that there was a link between economic and social development, on the one hand, and a reduction in fertility rate on the other. Thus, by improving basic health services, by introducing better nutrition, by increasing literacy, and by promoting more even income distribution in a poor country, a lower and more acceptable fertility rate would be achieved.

This "advance in thinking", to use Robert McNamara's words, persuaded the Bank to change its overall lending strategy. Where previously it had concentrated on the big infrastructure projects such as dams, roads and bridges, it began to switch to projects which directly improved the basic services of a country. There was a shift, if you like, from building dams to digging water holes to provide clean water.

A second reason for the change in approach was that the Bank had learned a bitter lesson from projects financed in the 1960s.Many of its major capital investments had scarcely touched the lives of the urban and rural poor, nor had they created much employment. The projects did not have the "trickle down" effect they have in industrialized countries. Instead, the huge dams, steel mills and so on were left as monuments to themselves.

This redirection of its lending has meant that the Bank has tended to support labour-intensive activities rather than capital-intensive ones, both in rural and urban areas. There is a better chance, in the first case, that its funds will benefit the bottom 40% of a country's population. The bank is also looking at ways of stimulating the growth of small businesses in many developing countries, since this would create employment opportunities for people with low incomes.

The major thrust of the Bank's efforts is directed towards improving conditions in poor countries. The Bank sees it as a moral duty of developed countries to help those living in conditions of absolute poverty. Mr McNamara has publicly stated that he trusts "civilized people will never allow themselves to reach a stage where they will watch on their colour TV sets other less fortunate nations perish".

While retaining the priority of helping poor countries clearly in mind, the Bank also assists middle-income countries. What these need, above all, is a constant flow of investment capital, and they are quite prepared to pay market rates for it. This 'investment flow' the Bank will provide. On such investments, the Bank earns an average return of 8% annually. lt must be remembered that, although many of its loans are on concessionary terms, the Bank is also a hard- headed agency, not a welfare institution. It tries to increase the productivity of these middle-income countries so that the loans "earn the amount required to service them".

Being such a big and obvious target, the Bank has often come under fire. For example, its officials have been taken to task for using the Concorde supersonic aircraft so frequently; about 500 times in one year. Also, the large growth in the organization's personnel has not pleased some US critics.

A more substantial criticism has concerned the President's policy of setting annual targets for lending to specified countries. This could lead to a deterioration in the quality of loans, some say. One former Bank official has said: "Rather than encourage growth for its own sake, the Bank should begin thinking of itself less as a foreign aid agency and more of a financial "deal maker" combining official with private resources for specific purposes."

Finally some people maintain that the impact of the projects funded by the Bank has been modest. When one looks around the world at countries that have successfully transformed to industrial status, for example Hong Kong, or have greatly improved the well-being of their peoples, for example China, it seems that one should beware of overestimating the Bank's impact. In the case of Hong Kong, change has come about as a result of a trade offensive, the purpose of which has been to flood Western markets with cheap goods made by capitalist methods of production; in the case of China, change has come from radical social reorganization following an armed revolution.

The World Bank started working with the Government of Belarus in 1992. The first project focused on improved forest management in the Bclavezhskaya Pushcha nature reserve. From that time the World Bank has assisted with an economic rehabilitation loan, institution building, forestry development and a number of technical assistance projects.


Поделиться:

Дата добавления: 2015-09-15; просмотров: 195; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы!; Нарушение авторских прав





lektsii.com - Лекции.Ком - 2014-2024 год. (0.005 сек.) Все материалы представленные на сайте исключительно с целью ознакомления читателями и не преследуют коммерческих целей или нарушение авторских прав
Главная страница Случайная страница Контакты