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Commonwealth Secretariat press release

Commonwealth-World Bank talks on joint co-operation

6 April 1999

Commonwealth Secretary-General Emeka Anyaoku will lead a team of senior officials from the Commonwealth Secretariat to Washington on April 7-8 for talks with World Bank President James Wolfensohn and Bank staff on ways in which collaboration between the two organisations can be deepened and expanded.

This will be the second formal contact between the two sides since the Secretary-General and the World Bank President met at Marlborough House, London in November last year and agreed to institute regular six-monthly meetings between senior staff from each institution. The meetings are designed to monitor present and future collaboration.

The Washington talks are expected to focus on the special needs of small states, management of debt and the implementation of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, public sector reform, privatisation and corporate governance, and basic education and health programmes. A project linking both organisations is the Iwokrama Rainforest Programme in Guyana which was set up as a Commonwealth initiative with World Bank support to demonstrate how rainforest resources could be conserved and sustainably used. They will also discuss the new development framework put forward by Mr Wolfensohn.

The Commonwealth Secretary-General said: "I hope that a series of concrete proposals will emerge from our meetings that the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Bank can take forward to help the world's developing countries. The work that is being done for the benefit of Commonwealth member countries offers a ready example for other countries around the world."

At the talks in London last year Chief Anyaoku and Mr Wolfensohn identified in particular the specialist role the Commonwealth could play in delivering assistance to and providing support for small states. Some 30 of the Commonwealth's 54 members are small states with populations of less than 1.5 million and the Commonwealth has become an important forum for them to express their views and effect change.

A Joint Commonwealth/World Bank Task Force to identify the ways and means of addressing the vulnerability of small states was established last year and will present its report initially to the World Bank's Development Committee at its meeting later this month and then to Commonwealth Finance Ministers at their annual meeting later in the year.

Issued by the Information and Public Affairs Division, Commonwealth Secretariat,
Marlborough House,
Pall Mall,
London SW1Y 5HX,
United Kingdom.
Tel: 0207-839 3411;
Fax: 0207-839 9081;
Telex: 27678


99/20 6 April, 1999

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ISSUED BY THE COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIVISION
Commonwealth Secretariat Marlborough House Pall Mall London SW1Y 5HX United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7747 6385/6 Fax: +44 (0)20 7839 9081
Email: info@commonwealth.int