World Bank proposes $50-billion trade fund

World Bank Group president Robert B Zoellick has called upon the Group of Twenty developed and emerging economies to endorse a new $50 billion Global Trade Liquidity Programme, which he called the World Bank's latest innovation to bring back the lost momentum in global trade.

Robert B Zoellick, President, World Bank Group The programme, with an initial $1 billion investment from the World Bank and governments and funds leveraged from regional development banks such as Standard Chartered, Standard Bank, and Rabobank in a risk-sharing financing arrangement with major private sector partners.  

''G-20 backing will help us gain more momentum, thereby increasing support,'' Zoellick said.

He also cited World Bank initiatives in microfinance, infrastructure and bank capitalisations to show how important it was for governments, international institutions, civil society, and the private sector to mobilise resources and constantly innovate.
 
 Zoellick said there would be a sharp slowdown in economic growth in the developing world this year, putting more poor people at risk, and the G-20 must not shrink from combining ideas and actions to restore confidence in the world economy.

Speaking at a Thomson Reuters Newsmaker in London, Zoellick said many of the immediate challenges of the crisis could be addressed if the G-20 reformed and empowered existing international institutions to help resist protectionism, evaluate the effectiveness of stimulus packages, and monitor banking reforms.

''This is not a moment for complacency. It is not a day for expressing false confidence that all has been done that can be done. It is not a time for narrow nationalist or even regional responses. The one certitude we can draw from events over the past year is our inability to predict what is to come, and how it may trigger other unexpected events,'' Zoellick said in his speech ahead of the G-20 summit in London.