Us Copyright Information Use the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view pdf files Subscribe to our free automatic email notification service. The directors of the six IMF area departments assess the current situations in their regions, the challenges these regions face, and their opportunities for growth in the coming years. Despite its many benefits, however, globalization is unsettling, and those who feel most threatened by it may try to turn back the clock. The development landscape in the early twenty-first century will be shaped by globalization and localization. Although these forces offer poor countries unprecedented opportunities for growth, they may prove politically and economically destabilizing unless institutional frameworks are strengthened.
All countries have much more to gain than to lose from opening up their markets.
As a new round of trade talks begins, the international community should make a commitment to pursue further trade reforms. In exchange, they should further liberalize their own trade regimes. Although current prospects for increased aid disbursements are not good, efforts to combat poverty could be more successful if aid were provided on conditions that included human, or social, criteria. The Internet and related technologies are revolutionizing the way people live, communicate, and work. The turbulence that swept through financial markets in the fall of 1998 was a wake-up call.