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While I respect the concern of Secretary of State Hilary Clifton, about the sharp rise of food prices, among the poorest nations; I cannot help but express my serious reservation about the advise given to the poor to Diversify. Diversify may be from food crop to cash crop, from agriculture to industrialization, etc.
Diversification is in itself a very serious business like re-engineering, transformation and renaissance. It is about looking at the glass as half full instead of half empty. It is about seeking investors and risk assessment tools. Imagine, all these high risk activities even the Wall Street, and financial markets could not handle themselves. We still remember, the series of derivatives, hedge funds and all sorts of financial alternatives that bust the financial regulations and sank the global economy.
Remember, the stimulus and recovery packages in trillions given to the very people who sank the economy? Who is investing in the poor to take chances with diversification. The question and the real advise is please give stimulus and recovery packages in trillions to the world poor and see what they can do with it. Withholding resources and money from the poor and advising them to diversify is utter hypocrisy and shame. Show me the money and the resources for diversification is my recommendation.
Imagine demanding diversification of economy for the poorest world population when the Global Economic Crisis is due to too much diversification of the financial regulations. All the hedge funds and derivatives, what is referred to the creatve diversification of the financial markets sank the global ecoomy.
Now, you are poor and you are expected to diversify, when you are not able even to sustain life with the established markets. To diversify, you need creative and educated business people who can take riks.
The poor cannot take risks with new ventures as they do not have risk absorbing extra resources. Imagine, if you are poor, you are 24/7 obsessed with food and basic survival strategies. How can you think beyond the now and the present of survival.
We need to invest and inject cash in poor countries to start with so that they can diversify. So, where is the money is the real question.
Let me read your alternative perspective and here is the World Bank perspective for what it is worth.
Dr. BMJ
www.GlobalBelaiJesus.com
This summary is prepared by the External Affairs Department of the World Bank. All material is taken directly from published and copyright wire service stories and newspaper articles. The daily summary and other news can be found on the World Bankís external website at http://www.worldbank.org/news. For inquiries call (202) 473-7660 or send a written request to the News Bureau.______________________________
Monday, May 09, 2011
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Todayís Headlines:
- Clinton Raises Alarm On Rising Food Prices
- WWF Takes Images Of Rare Tigers In Logging Forest
- US Forgives $1 Billion Of Egypt's Debts
- Colombia Receives Approval For $6.2 Billion Credit Line From IMF
- Interview: World's Poorest States Must Diversify
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Clinton Raises Alarm On Rising Food Prices. ìUS Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned Friday that global shortages of food and spiraling prices threaten widespread destabilization and is urging immediate action to forestall a repeat of the 2007 and 2008 crisis that led to riots in dozens of countries around the developing world. Clinton told a meeting of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that urgent steps are needed to hold down costs and boost agricultural production as food prices continue to riseÖ.î [Associated Press]
AFP adds that ìÖmore than a billion people suffer from hunger around the world. An estimate from the World Bank cited by Clinton said that high food prices had already pushed 44 million people into poverty in the past 12 monthsÖ.î [Agence France Presse/Factiva]
Bloomberg writes that ìÖClinton and President Barack Obama have funneled administration resources into food security, which the US sees as integral to stabilizing developing countriesÖ. The Feed the Future program that the US State Department and the US Agency for International Development oversee aims to ëstrengthen the entire agricultural chain,í Clinton said. That includes creating better seeds, connecting farmers to local and larger markets, and encouraging crop diversity and better nutrition, Clinton saidÖ.î [Bloomberg]
WWF Takes Images Of Rare Tigers In Logging Forest. ìThe World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has recorded images of 12 endangered Sumatran tigers, including a mother playing with cubs, in an Indonesian forest that it said is about to be cleared by loggers. WWF, which estimates that there are only 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild, captured the images on camera traps in the Bukit Tigapuluh forest on central Sumatra island, which has seen rampant deforestation for palm oil and paper plantationsÖ.î [Reuters/Factiva]
BBC adds that ìÖ ëWhat is unclear is whether we found so many tigers because weíre getting better at positioning our cameras or because the tigersí habitat is shrinking so rapidly here that they are being forced into sharing smaller and smaller bits of forests,í said Karmila Parakkasi, who leads WWFís tiger research team in SumatraÖ. ëThis video confirms the extreme importance of these forests in the Bukit Tigapuluh ecosystem and its wildlife corridor,í said Anwar Purwoto, the director of WWF Indonesiaís Forest and Species ProgramÖ.î [BBC News]
The Jakarta Post reports that ìÖthe forest where the tigers were recorded is under imminent threat of being cleared by the pulp and paper industry, despite being designated a ëglobal priority Tiger Conservation Landscape.í It is one of six areas the Indonesian government pledged to protect at last Novemberís tiger summit of world leaders in Russia. Bukit Tigapuluh is located in Riau and Jambi provinces in Central SumatraÖ. Between 2004 and 2010, Bukit Tigapuluh lost 205,460 hectares of forest to pulp and paper and the palm oil industriesÖ.î [The Jakarta Post]
US Forgives $1 Billion Of Egypt's Debts. ìThe US will cancel an estimated $1billion of Egypt's debtsÖ.The decision is part of a bundle of economic aid, which also includes commercial and investment-related incentives that seek to restore stability following the 25 January revolution that ousted President Hosni MubarakÖ.
Egyptian growth rates are expected to dip 4 percent from last year, and pressure to create jobs is mounting. Since the start of the revolution, the US has given Egypt $150 million in economic assistance and Tunisia $20 millionÖ.î [Al-Masry Al-Youm (Egypt)]
The Washington Post adds that ìÖeconomic assistance for Egypt and Tunisia is ëfundamental to our capacity to support their democratic transitions,í a senior State Department official said on the condition of anonymity. He said that officials were in the midst of ëintense policy formulationí but that the economic package wasn't finished. Parts of it will need congressional approvalÖ.
US Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Robert Hormats is currently in Egypt to discuss what form the relief would take: outright debt forgiveness, loan guarantees or debt swaps, which would convert the loan into aid programs, the senior administration official saidÖ.î [The Washington Post]
Colombia Receives Approval For $6.2 Billion Credit Line From IMF. ìThe International Monetary Fund (IMF) Friday approved a two-year, $6.2 billion credit line for Colombia. The IMF said the Colombian authorities intend to treat the arrangement as precautionary and don't intend to draw on the Flexible Credit Line. ëColombia's strong economic performance has been underpinned by a sound institutional framework and skillful macroeconomic management,í said IMF First Deputy Managing Director John Lipsky in a statementÖ.î [Dow Jones/Factiva]
Bloomberg adds that ìÖColombian central bank President Jose Dario Uribe in an interview last month said the countryís economy may expand as much as 5.5 percent this year, more than policy makers had been projecting, as expansion in credit and consumer confidence create ëperfectí conditions for growthÖ.î [Bloomberg]
EFE writes that ìÖdespite the favorable economic path the country, Lipsky said that Colombian authorities believe the country is still exposed to risks due to factors such as fluctuations in raw material prices. The credit line ëwould provide appropriate insurance against shocks,í Lipsky saidÖ.î [EFE/Factiva]
Interview: World's Poorest States Must Diversify. In an interview with Reuters, World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said, ìMaking juice from their own fruit crops or polishing gemstones from their mines would help the world's least developed countries diversify their economies and reduce povertyÖ ëJust producing crops is not enough. You need to process the product you produce and create jobs,í Okonjo-Iweala saidÖ.
The former finance minister of Nigeria urged Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to cut red tape, focus on delivering services, empower the private sector and improve living standards. The World Bank has just raised $49 billion for the next three years to support the 79 poorest countries in the world. A particular focus would be on post-conflict countries she said, which need strong support to avoid recurring violence.
ëIf you don't support these countries then some of them may slide back. We need to consider how you help them stimulate economic activity, create jobs for youth who have been involved in this conflict, and focus on improving their lives,í Okonjo-Iweala said. Only three small nations ñ Botswana, Cape Verde and Maldives ñ had developed enough to escape the LDC grouping since the UN created it decades agoÖ.î [Reuters/Factiva]
Also in This Edition, Briefly NotedÖ Rwandan President Paul Kagame has appointed the country's central bank governor Francois Kanimba as minister for trade and industry in his first reshuffle since being re-elected with 93 percent of the vote last year. Kanimba, who had been governor of the National Bank of Rwanda since 2002, was replaced by his deputy Claver Gatete. [Reuters/Factiva]
The World Bank has approved a grant of $4.8 million which will help Zambia and Malawi to establish trans-frontier management of biodiversity in Nyika Trans-Frontier Conservation Area (TFCA) that borders the two countries, the Zambia Daily Mail reported on Friday. [Xinhua/Factiva]
Argentina's national statistics agency, Indec, expects to have a new consumer price index in place in 2013 amid widespread distrust of its current inflation measurements, according to Indec Director Ana Maria Edwin. [Dow Jones/Factiva]
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has won a referendum on a wide range of reforms, according to the country's National Election Council. An early count showed voters had backed him on all 10 referendum questions, which ranged from banning bullfighting to judicial and media reform. [BBC News]
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus says he is worried about the future of the pioneering microlending bank he founded now that Bangladesh's government has successfully ousted him as its head. Yunus indicated he fears the government may seek to influence Grameen Bank's governing structure and its lending policies, which could destabilize the agency. [Associated Press/Factiva]
The EU is planning to rescind trade benefits for dozens of developing countries, including Russia and Brazil, because officials believe they have grown too wealthy and no longer deserve preferential access to the world's largest market. [Financial Times]
The Finance Ministers of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, the President of the European Central Bank, European Commissioner for Economic Affairs and the president of the group of countries using the euro discussed the recent developments related to euro-zone financial stability at a meeting Friday night, but didn't take any decisions, the commission said Saturday. [Dow Jones/Factiva]
Romania has lowered its economic growth forecast for 2012 to 3.5 percent to 4 percent after talks with the International Monetary Fund, from 4 percent to 4.5 percent, President Traian Basescu said on Saturday. [Reuters/Factiva]
A five-day UN summit with 48 leaders of the world's Least Developed Countries (LDCs) began in Istanbul Monday to discuss a new 10-year aid plan to help lift nations out of poverty. [Agence France Presse/Factiva]
Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company will partner with the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development to develop a drug for treating tuberculosis. [Nikkei/Factiva]
As the world Economic crisis is expanding to food prices and water access challenges as well as fuel price hikes, it is becoming evident that the Global Banking System is not learning the most important lesson of deregulations.
As the world Economic crisis is expanding to food prices and water access challenges as well as fuel price hikes, it is becoming evident that the Global Banking System is not learning the most important lesson of deregulations.
I like this piece. Palestinian Bonds, Water trade and accessing Syria for humanitarian purposes, when the government is intentionally bombing neighborhoods. Who is fooling whom. We need to access Bashir with our Navy SEAL like Osma Bin Laden Are you serious?
The fools want to repeat the same mistake over and over and expect different results. Now, they even want to advise the Emerging market to repeat the same mistake. This is what happens when people do not pay for their mistakes. They want to repeat it and even have the audacity to project it on others.
Watch out this space
De BMJ
show details 8:16 AM (1 hour ago) |
This summary is prepared by the External Affairs Department of the World Bank. All material is taken directly from published and copyright wire service stories and newspaper articles. The daily summary and other news can be found on the World Bank’s external website athttp://www.worldbank.org/news. For inquiries call (202) 473-7660 or send a written request to the News Bureau.______________________________
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
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Today’s Headlines:
- First Ever Palestinian Bonds Sold
- UN Humanitarian Chief Concerned Over Lack Of Access To Syria
- Interview: Water Trade Part Of Answer To Feeding World
- Op-Ed: The Growing Risks Of Our Four-Speed World
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First Ever Palestinian Bonds Sold. “An investment firm has sold the first ever bonds from a Palestinian borrower. The transaction raised $70 million for the Palestinian Development and Investment Company (PADICO), with the money coming from Palestinian and Jordanian banks. The proceeds will be used towards building a new power plant as well as a tourism centre on the West Bank….” [BBC News]
AP adds that “…Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said his government was encouraging the private sector to float bonds and planned to issue its own bonds at an unspecified date. ‘The Palestinian Authority is determined to build the foundations of an independent state,’ said Fayyad, adding that the government had dramatically reduced its reliance on foreign aid to a planned $970 million this year from $1.8 billion in 2008….” [Associated Press]
AFP writes that “…PADICOChairman Munib Masri hailed the issue as a sign of the firm's ‘commitment to investing in Palestine and confidence in the local economy.’
‘We are taking the long view on things and hope to raise money through our corporate bonds to finance additional long-term investments; that is our vision and that is our strategy for Palestine,’ he said in a statement. In February, PADICO declared profits of $38.1 million for 2010, a 22 percent increase in overall revenue….” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]
UN Humanitarian Chief Concerned Over Lack Of Access To Syria. “UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Under-Secretary Valerie Amos expressed concern on Tuesday over lack of humanitarian access to parts of Syria. ‘Ongoing security operations may be preventing the provision of basic social services. The suspension and limited delivery of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)'s assistance to schools, clinics and community centers is also worrying,’ she said….” [Xinhua/Factiva]
Reuters adds that “…Amos voiced concern on Tuesday about Syria's refusal so far to grant humanitarian access to Deraa and other cities…. ‘Despite repeated requests to the Syrian authorities for access, the proposed mission to Deraa on Sunday, 8 May has not gone ahead,’ Amos said in a statement. ‘The main objective of the mission was to independently assess the situation and plan a response if needed.’…” [Reuters/Factiva]
AP reports that “…Amos says a UN aid mission to the southern Syrian city of Deraa has been postponed until later this week because the country failed to provide access. UN spokesman Farhan Haq said Monday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had indicated a ‘willingness’ to give the humanitarian mission access to Deraa during a telephone conversation last week with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. But Haq said…no access had been given….” [Associated Press]
Interview: Water Trade Part Of Answer To Feeding World.In an interview with Reuters, Nestle Chairman Peter Brabeck, “Selling water on exchanges in the same way other commodities are traded could help solve a shortage of the world's most precious raw material likely to hit long before oil runs dry. ‘I am not against the idea,’ Brabeck said.
The first place to consider it should be Alberta province in Canada, he said, where competition could be particularly fierce between farmers needing water for crops, and oil companies needing water to exploit oil sands, which require far more water than other kinds of oil deposit. He also cited the ancient example of the Gulf state of Oman, which had a water exchange system dating back thousands of years and noted how the strong rally in oil, which climbed to more than $127 a barrel for Brent crude in April and was above $117 on Tuesday on international futures markets, could erode demand.
‘You see what happens when demand is growing. The market reacts and people start to use oil in a more efficient way,’ he said. ‘One thing that does not move at all is the price of water.’…” [Reuters/Factiva]
Op-Ed: The Growing Risks Of Our Four-Speed World. In an opinion piece published in the Financial Times, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Senior Associates Uri Dadush and Moisés Naím write, “During the worst days of the financial crisis, investors and policymakers talked of decoupling, asking if emerging economies would continue to grow if the rich countries crashed. They did. But this spawned another mantra: the two-speed world. We believe it is time to start talking about the four-speed world.
This world is one divided not just between countries with fast and slow growth, but also those with low and high inflation. As one emerging economy after another tightens fiscal and monetary policies to fight inflation, exchange rate appreciation and other symptoms of overheating, the notion that developing countries will keep the world economy motoring along even as the advanced countries slowly mend their broken economies is becoming harder to sustain.
The point is that a four-speed world is one in which the advanced countries must bear the brunt of the adjustment to the mess that they themselves created. This means first and foremost re-establishing fiscal sanity. But it means doing this with little help from those friends in emerging countries upon whose vibrant economies we have come to rely.” [Financial Times]
Also in This Edition, Briefly Noted… The World Bank has granted Nigeria $29 million to develop a Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS). [The Nation (Nigeria)]
More than 1,100 women are raped every day in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), making sexual violence against women 26 times more common than previously thought, according to the study published in the American Journal of Public Health on Tuesday. [Agence France Presse/Factiva]
The Chilean government is mulling a sovereign debt issue of up to $1.5 billion on international markets later this year, Finance Minister Felipe Larrain said Tuesday. [Dow Jones/Factiva]
The number of nurses in China has increased substantially over the past five years, with the country's longtime nurse shortage being addressed, the Ministry of Health said Tuesday. China currently has nearly 2.05 million nurses, up 52 percent from that of 2005. [Xinhua/Factiva]
Vietnam's minorities are far more likely to live in poverty than the rest of the population, the UN said Tuesday, singling out the northwest, where ethnic Hmong rallied for autonomy last week. [Agence France Presse/Factiva]
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III may tap the remaining balance of the $1.8 billion concessional loan from China in order to bolster the country's infrastructure development. [Xinhua/Factiva]
Australian federal government on Tuesday announced to boost foreign aids by $520 million next year, in a bid to tackle extremism and reduce the numbers of refugees fleeing violence and poverty in the world trouble spots. [Xinhua/Factiva]
The World Bank is to provide tens of thousands of people in the outer islands of Kiribati in the South Pacific with $2 million in emergency food aid. [BBC News]
Haitian lawmakers have granted the diaspora the right to vote for the first time. Legislators voted late Monday to recognize multiple citizenship for the up to four million Haitians living abroad. [Agence France Presse/Factiva]
Britain plans to open new diplomatic missions in developing nations as part of a drive to increase its influence in fast-growing emerging economies, while cutting costs in Europe, a government source said on Tuesday. [Reuters/Factiva]
Latvia's economy grew by 0.2 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with output in the previous three months, preliminary data from the state's statistics office showed. [Agence France Presse/Factiva]
World Bank President Robert Zoellick urged private equity executives on Tuesday to more actively promote capitalism in emerging markets, including Middle East and North African nations struggling to reshape themselves. [Reuters/Factiva]
Annual urban consumer price inflation in Egypt accelerated to 12.1 percent in April, its highest in a year, on the back of soaring food prices. [Reuters/Factiva]
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