World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on Tuesday that the
bank hopes to seek closer cooperation with China on issues of
global concern, including development in other parts of the world,
energy and climate change.
Speaking at a press conference in Beijing at the end of his
four-day China visit, Zoellick said he had discussed potential
cooperation for development projects in Africa during his meeting
with Li Ruogu, president of Export-Import Bank of China.
China's investment in Africa would help the latter to improve
infrastructure, Zoellick, a former U.S. deputy secretary of state
and trade representative, said.
The World Bank was also willing to work with China to seek
better experience and cooperation models to help African economic
growth and to make aid sustainable, he said.
Zoellick said the World Bank wanted to cooperate with China in
fields including the integrated development of the nation's urban
and rural areas, health care, pension insurance, education and
finance.
He also welcomed China's announcement that it would contribute
for the first time to the International Development Association at
IDA's 15th replenishment meeting that ended on Friday in
Berlin.
IDA, a unit of the World Bank, provides grants and no-interest
loans to the world's poorest countries.
China became a contributor to IDA for the first time, eight
years after it stopped taking loans from IDA in 1999 after
receiving more than 9.9 billion U.S. dollars in credit.
"It is a significant breakthrough to have China become a
contributor," he said. "It signals China's intention to help shape
the international aid architecture through multinational channels,"
Zoellick said.
With China a stakeholder in the fight against global climate
change, Zoellick extolled the country's ambitious targets for
reducing energy consumption, improving fuel efficiency standards in
cars, and for the important role it played in global carbon
markets.
"Supporting China in its effort to improve energy efficiency and
reduce emissions of greenhouse gases is a top priority of the World
Bank in China," he said.
This was Zoelick's first visit to China as World Bank president.
During the trip, he also visited the bank's projects in the
southern province of Guangdong, the southwestern province of
Sichuan and neighboring city Chongqing.
(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2007)
