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World Bank to step up help for middle income states

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: The World Bank says it is seeking to increase support for middle-income countries (MICs), where more than 70 percent of the developing world’s poor people live.

According to the Bank, MICs have a crucial role in global public goods such as trade integration, financial stability, environmental protection, and fighting communicable diseases. MICs may be diverse, but they all need to be helped to bring about institutional reform, infrastructure investment embracing both the public and the private sectors and improved social service delivery. A recent British government report said that 2.6 billion people live in 76 middle income countries, half of them in China.

None of the MICs is likely to meet all the development targets laid out in the UN Millennium Declaration.

They, therefore, need help with institutional reform, infrastructure investment and social service delivery. They expect the Bank to address their specific issues and be aligned with their governments’ priorities.

The Bank says it already is doing that in a number of countries.

In Poland which joined the European Union in May 2004, the Bank is said to be helping with infrastructure, competitiveness, and regulatory and financial reform, as well as in the more traditional areas of health financing reform and higher education.

In Brazil, where 15 percent of the population lives in extreme poverty, the Bank is involved in projects aimed at improving education and health standards, and is providing analysis and advice on issues such as decentralisation. In Russia, the Bank says it has provided funding for projects in education, transportation, pension reform, and tax collection, as well as policy advice on issues such as competitiveness, the investment climate, legal and judicial reform, and land registration.

In Mexico, where 53 percent of the people live below the poverty line, the Bank is involved in poverty reduction projects as well as with water resource management and decentralisation.

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