The World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick is on eight-day, three-nation Africa visit to help focus the attention of African governments, development partners and private investors on seizing the opportunity for renewed momentum in economic growth and overcoming poverty.
A statement issued by the Bank office in Accra yesterday said Mr. Zoellick will commence the tour next week on Tuesday and will head first to Sierra Leone before travelling to Cote D�Ivoire and then Ethiopia for the African Union (AU) summit.
�I am visiting Africa to learn about how its people have coped with the global economic crisis and to see how the World Bank Group can work with them to improve prospects for economic growth and expanded opportunity. Much of Africa has a solid record of economic growth, including some of Africas fragile states, and it has the potential to be another pole of growth for the world economy, Zoellick said.
He said although hit by the global food, fuel and financial crises, African governments have persisted in strengthening their economic policies as they pursue development, or rebuild after conflict.
�The many sub-Saharan African countries had enjoyed a decade or more of solid growth before the crisis and it was important to preserve and expand on these gains y drawing investment to high growth areas,� he said.
He said a combination of policy and institutional reforms and external resources are urgently need to help build capacity, generate economic opportunities in fragile states, and lay the foundation for stability and overcoming poverty.
He also called for policies and investments that would expand Africa�s share of global and intra-African trade by fostering regional integration and building crucial infrastructure in energy, transport and irrigation needed to promote agriculture, manufacturing and industrialization on the continent.
In fiscal 2009, the World Bank Group, which supports Africa mainly through the International Development Association (IDA) and International Finance Corporation (IFC), committed a record $58.8 billion worldwide in loans, grants, equity investments, and guarantees, a 54 percent increase over 2008.
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