Jim Yong Kim said the World Bank agreed to launch a
study in collaboration with Beijing on reforms for China's health sector.
World Bank president Jim Yong Kim welcomed the
initiatives of establishing two new multilateral lenders, saying they would not
pose a threat to the Washington-based institution and would instead help it fight
poverty and spur economic growth.
The world's five key emerging nations of Brazil,
Russia, India, China and South Africa have proposed the launch of the BRICS
Development Bank. President Xi Jinping also broached the idea in October last
year to set up a US$50 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to finance
projects in the region.
The initiatives are expected to boost China's clout,
which sparked concerns that the new banks might compete with existing
multilateral lenders, such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, in
which Washington and Tokyo have the biggest voting rights respectively.
Kim refuted such concerns yesterday during his
three-day visit to China, saying the World Bank would not treat the new banks
as rivals but would share its expertise with them.
"For us, our competition is poverty. Our enemy is
lack of economic growth. Another enemy is growth that is not inclusive,"
he said. "We have no choice but to welcome any new entrants because every
new entrant will help us battle poverty."
He said the need for new investments in infrastructure
would be massive, with such funding needs in developing countries estimated at
US$1 trillion a year, while the World Bank alone could only offer US$60 billion
last year.
Xi will attend the sixth BRICS summit in Brazil next
Tuesday and Wednesday, with the new BRICS bank likely on his agenda in talks
with his peers there.
Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said earlier that Beijing
might act as the biggest shareholder in the proposed Asian Infrastructure
Investment Bank, taking possibly up to a 50 per cent stake. He said the bank
would complement and cooperate with the existing multilateral lenders.
Kim said the World Bank agreed to launch a study in
collaboration with Beijing on reforms for China's health sector in a bid to
help the country accelerate its efforts to provide "affordable quality
care", especially for its ageing population and a middle class facing
chronic diseases.
The World Bank has forecast China's economic growth
rate will reach about 7.6 per cent this year before easing to 7.5 per cent in
2015. Such a slowdown, Kim said, was a natural result of the government's
rebalancing reforms that sought to cut the economy's reliance on trade and
investment to favour domestic consumption.
"When you are making the kind of changes that the
Chinese government is going through, it should not surprise anybody the growth
has slowed," he said. Beijing is aware of the need to stick to the reform
agenda in order to pursue high-quality growth. The process had been "so
far, so good", he said.
On the Sino-United States strategic and economic
dialogue due to start today in Beijing, Kim said the two leading economies had
many common interests and concerns to share, including climate change, trade
and stability in the Middle East.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post
print edition as Kim backs launch of BRICS bank
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