Help your best clients: FM to WB

Chidambaram, who was addressing the annual meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund, said: ‘‘I wish to make a special mention of the need to step up, in a big way, lending to infrastructure. Middle income countries have the human and physical resources to raise their people from poverty.’’

‘‘They have been the Bank’s best customers so far. What they lack is infrastructure that can make them efficient and competitive. Your best customers ask the Bank to lend a helping hand to create this world-class infrastructure.’’

He stressed the need to scale up assistance to developing countries for achieving the MDGs, which include significantly reducing poverty and illiteracy. ‘‘Two years after Monterrey (where the developed and developed countries pledged to achieve MDGs), the implementation of the compact appears uncertain. The promised additionality of resources has failed to materialise. Without additional resources, the MDGs will remain a distant dream. Even the best performers among developing countries may not realise the dream.’’ ‘‘I should also point out, with some regret,’’ said Chidambaram, ‘‘that when concessional resources are allocated, that appears to be done on considerations other than the twin criteria of ‘need’ and ‘performance.’ When a country is prepared to commit its own resources towards MDGs, and has a proven record of performance, the developed countries must keep their own part of the compact.’’ Aid, he said, continues to be delivered in a piecemeal, uncertain and inequitable manner rather than through multilaterals with transparent allocation criteria. ‘‘We are pleased to note that the Bank and the Fund have put donor coordination and harmonisation high on their agenda and we hope they will sustain and further enhance their efforts to make the promised levels of additionality in Official Development Assistance (ODA) a reality.’’— Press Trust of India