World Bank’s East Asia Vice President confirms support to region to deal with
financial turmoil
世界银行东亚区副总裁表态支持东亚各国应对金融动荡
Press Release No. 2009/116/EAP

Contacts:
In Washington:
Elisabeth Mealey (202) 458 4475
[email protected]
Carl Hanlon (202) 473 8087
[email protected]

Washington DC, October 15, 2008--- The World Bank's East Asia and Pacific
regional vice president Jim Adams has confirmed the Bank’s support for
countries in East Asia to deal with the global financial turmoil

"We stand ready to support all of our member countries across East Asia to deal
with the challenges arising from the financial crisis," Mr Adams said.  "The
World Bank is also supporting the initiatives of ASEAN members to share
information and develop a coordinated response in close cooperation with the
ASEAN Secretariat.

“我们随时为东亚各成员国提供我们的支持，以应对金融动荡引发的挑战”；“世界银行还将支持东盟各成员国家在信息分享上所做出的努力，与东盟秘书处紧密合作，建立协作反应机制”，世界银行东亚区副总裁Jim Adams 说。

"While we do not anticipate the establishment of a regional facility and have
not discussed commitments of funds at the regional level, numerous discussions
with individual governments were held during the recent Annual Meetings of the
World Bank and IMF on the impacts of the financial crisis and possible ways we
might be able to provide support at the country level.

"East Asian economies continue to perform strongly and have made significant
changes since the 1997 Asian financial crisis making them more resilient to the
impacts of the current global turbulence.  Like all countries, Asian economies
must be prepared to deal with any effects of the turmoil," he said.

The World Bank is committed to helping governments and the private sector
manage the impacts of the global financial crisis by providing increased
lending, equity investments, innovative new tools, and safety net programs.

The World Bank has the financial capacity to comfortably double its
middle-income lending arm (IBRD) to developing countries to meet additional
demand from partner countries. IBRD lending was US$13.5 billion last fiscal
year.

The Bank's private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is
considering setting up a special fund that would provide equity to recapitalize
small to medium-sized banks in poor countries with insufficient government
capacity to help inoculate them from global financial market turmoil.

IFC might contribute around $1 billion and seek to raise another $2 billion or
more from various sources including international financial institutions
(IFIs), commercial banks, bilateral government financial agencies and other
investors.