 |
Senior World Bank VP agrees with PM’s call to ‘lend ear’ to protestors
He was referring to comments Erdoğan made at the opening session of the Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in which Erdoğan said: “Everyone that steers the global economy, that means you [referring to decision makers of the institutions], has to put their head between their two hands and contemplate carefully about where all these faults stemmed from. Also, we have to lend an ear to the ongoing protest outside this hall.”
Speaking with Today's Zaman on the sidelines of the gathering, Muasher said: “We totally agree with what the prime minister [Erdoğan] has said. It is important that any decisions made not be made behind closed doors, but that it takes into account the needs of the people we are trying to serve.”
In an effort to improve the tarnished image of an organization dominated by the interests of leading Western powers, the bank recently overhauled many of its decision-making processes and now encompasses a much more eclectic array of voices in its policy making.
“There is not a single major policy decision that the bank takes now without consulting with civil society groups outside,” Muasher told Today's Zaman. “We believe very much in the need for consultation and dialogue -- not for dialogue's sake, but to factor in some of what we hear from the outside world and from civil society into our own decision-making process.”
The need for the World Bank and the IMF to take into account the image of an increasing array of voices is most visible when taking into account resolutions undertaken by the two institutions in what have become known as the “İstanbul Decisions,” whereby the voting rights of developing countries will be increased to encompass 47 percent. The frameworks under which these will come about are to be drawn up and finalized during the 2007 meetings.
Both IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and World Bank President Robert Zoellick repeatedly referred to a “new world order” during the meetings when assessing the tectonic shifts in the global balance of power that were uncovered by the global economic crisis. “We believe it is a positive step that 47 percent of the bank is in the hands of developing countries,” he said, but added that the bank was “more ambitious” and was hoping to increase this voting share of the developed world to 50 percent, to make them “on par” with the developed countries. “Obviously,” he said, “there is a lot of work ahead of us before the spring meetings -- it's not an easy issue.”
The increasing clout of the developing world can also be heard, arguably, in the increasing funds that have been allocated to the bank to help them with development and reconstruction in the developing world.
“Unemployment will lag the recovery process and we do not expect unemployment to ease before the mid of next year,” Muasher said, adding that this would especially be the case for Turkey. “Turkey faced this challenge even before the crisis,” he said, but noted that the crisis had especially hit employment in Turkey, which now stands at over 13 percent. “It has a very young population and it's quite a challenge to provide jobs,” he said. “That's why we have collaborated with Turkey to bring employment. The [International Finance Corporation] IFC has been very active in providing support for small and medium-sized enterprises [SME], which are the engines of growth and key providers of employment.”
He said the bank “will remain with Turkey long after the crisis.”
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BERİL DEDEOĞLU |  |
||
| Yemen and beyond | |||
| ABDULLAH BOZKURT |  |
||
| Turkey and Mexico: Distant yet so close | |||
| ABDÜLHAMİT BİLİCİ |  |
||
| Google kidnaps Gül! | |||
| İHSAN YILMAZ |  |
||
| The Egyptian elections, Islam and Islamists | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| There is need for a new initiative | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| Operational errors | |||
| HASAN KANBOLAT |  |
||
| Are Russian tourists being discouraged from visiting Turkey? | |||
| CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON |  |
||
| The modern ‘Great Game’: women’s role and status | |||
| KLAUS JURGENS |  |
||
| Back to the ’80s | |||
| KATHY HAMILTON |  |
||
| Random acts of violence | |||
| MERVE BÜŞRA ÖZTÜRK |  |
||
| Adding insult to injury in Uludere | |||
| NICOLE POPE |  |
||
| Shifting responsibility | |||
| YAVUZ BAYDAR |  |
||
| ‘Errorism’ | |||
| ORHAN MİROĞLU |  |
||
| ‘Strategic vision’ | |||
| ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ |  |
||
| Turkey through Amnesty International’s eyes | |||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
