Nov 2008 Financial News

World Bank president sees bigger role for T&T

Nov 10, 2008

If World Bank president Robert Zoellick and other World Bank finance officials have their way, developing countries such as Trinidad and Tobago will have a greater role to play in the global financial system, once the current economic crisis is over.

At the weekend, finance officials from the 20 biggest economies in the world (including Russia, India, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Italy, European Union, Saudi Arabia, US, Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, South Africa and the UK) met at a summit in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
It has been reported that talks during the meeting laid the groundwork for a overhaul of the international economic structure, with hopes of giving developing countries and emerging economies a greater voice.

While Trinidad and Tobago is a small nation in the global system, the importance which it plays in the US LNG supply chain and the economic weight it carries within the Caribbean region itself has led financial experts to say these will equip the country with some bargaining chips, once developing countries are given a bigger role within these institutions.

Last month, during an annual meeting of the World Bank's board of governors in the US, Zoellick said he believed new economic powers were on the rise and that developing economies could offer growth that would assist the current more stagnant economies of several developed countries and offer new possibilities for investment.

During last weekend's meeting in Brazil, he again highlighted the importance of developing nations when he said, "We need to modernise the multilateral system to bring in the important developing country voices... I think over the next two years we are going to see some real changes to the global system." Brazil's President Luiz Inacio da Silva, who supported Zoellick, said: "It is time for a pact between governments to build a new financial architecture for the world." "The crisis gives us an opportunity for real changes," he said.



Source:
Aretha Welch
Trinidad Express
Monday November 10, 2008
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161399374