From: barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us (Mr Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS: FINANCE: Africa wants more help from World Bank
Originator: barnhart@gagme
Organization: Evanston, Illinois
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 00:13:53 GMT

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: FINANCE: Africa wants more help from World Bank


washington, sep 21 (ips) -- overshadowed by the currency crisis in
europe, african finance ministers are bidding for more support
from the world bank and the west at this year's joint meeting here
between the bank and the international monetary fund (imf).

in an atmosphere of suspended crisis caused by last week's
currency volatility in europe and sunday's critical vote by france
on its adherence to the maastricht treaty, the ministers met this
weekend with bank president lewis preston.

k. malima, tanzania's finance minister and chairman of the
african caucus at the meeting, said the ministers stressed the
need for increased assistance, debt relief, and investment for
their beleaguered economies, as well as for assurances that africa
will maintain its already small representation on the bank's
governing board.

while some sub-saharan african countries are beginning to show
positive growth rates, the continent as a whole has suffered three
years of negative per capita growth due to drought, civil war and
unrest, and sluggish growth in the industrial countries which have
brought down prices for many of africa's commodity exports to
their lowest level in more than a century.

bank officials predicted last week that sub-saharan economies
as a whole could grow up to 1.7 percent per capita. but they said
that figure could be lower because of continued slow growth in
europe and the possibility that the drought which has afflicted
much of southern and eastern africa could extend into next year.

in a memorandum submitted to preston, they ''welcomed'' the
completion of a recent bank report on structural adjustment
lending that concluded that such far-reaching structural reforms
in africa are ''not sufficient'' to ensure economic recovery.

to revive growth and ensure its sustainability, the memo said,
there must be ''adequate'' flows of investment lending and more
social programmes to help mitigate the negative effects of
adjustment processes.

malima said african finance ministers are also very concerned
about the continuing debt burdens borne by the continent which
continues to send more capital back to its creditors than it
receives in new loans and aid.

''more far-reaching measures'' for relieving the debt ''will be
required if our countries are to attain sustainable growth,'' the
memo to preston said, adding that the ''importance of bank
leadership in this respect cannot be over-emphasised''. (more/ips)

finance: africa wants more help from world bank(2-e)

finance: africa (2)

in particular, the ministers called for the full application of
the so-called 'trinidad terms' -- put forward by then-british
chancellor john major two years ago.

the proposal calls for a two-thirds reduction in the debt
african nations implementing bank-supervised reform programmes owe
to bilateral donors. while some debt forgiveness has been applied
to certain african countries implementing structural reforms, the
actual amount has fallen far short of what is needed, according to
the ministers.

last december, the bank made a public call for adoption of the
'trinidad terms' or a comparable arrangement, but it has remained
more silent on the issue since. preston did not even mention the
need for more debt relief in his prepared remarks to the ministers
saturday.

the ministers also asked preston to urge donor countries to
''substantially'' increase their contributions in real terms to
the bank's soft-loan facility, the international development
association (ida), for its 10th replenishment next year.

ida, which provides concessional credits to the world's poorest
nations, raised 15.5 billion dollars for its clients during the
life of ida-9 from mid-1990 to mid-1993.  the equivalent next year
will be 18 billion dollars -- a figure on which most donor nations
are said to be tentatively agreed.

but more countries, including vietnam, cambodia, afghanistan,
albania and some of the republics of the former soviet union will
likely be eligible to receive ida credits during ida-10, and the
africans are concerned there may be less money proportionately
available to them.

during a meeting friday, donors agreed to shave the 15 percent
share of ida resources traditionally received by china as one way
of accomodating the influx of new members, but it remains unclear
whether other recipients will have to take cuts.

in addition to the 18 billion dollars he says should be a
minimum for ida-10, preston has pledged to seek an 'earth
increment' of up to five billion dollars to ensure that all ida
projects do not harm the environment.

africa's representation at the bank was briefly under threat
when switzerland, which joined the agency this year, demanded
representation on the executive board, where the west africa
caucus had the least voting power.

last week, however, the united states agreed to drop its
objections to enlarging the executive board to 22 members to
accomodate switzerland and russia. (end/ips/re/jl/yjc/92)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african