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The
participating Banks are the African Development Bank, the Arab
Monetary Fund, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank,
and the Islamic Development Bank. The World Bank will participate as
will the New Partnership for African Development.
“The
explicit and coordinated involvement of Regional Development Banks in
the implementation of the Doha Development Agenda is indispensable for
success. I am also hoping that this first meeting will not be a
one-off meeting, but that the Heads of vital Regional Development
Banks will agree to meet on a periodic basis in light of mutually
beneficial interests at stake,” said Mr. Moore.
The
meeting, which marks the first time the WTO has hosted heads of
regional development banks at its headquarters, is part of a wider
strategy of enhanced technical assistance and capacity building
launched by Mr. Moore after the Doha Ministerial Conference in
November. As part of the plan, WTO Member Governments have approved a
6.75% budget increase with much of the additional funding going to
capacity building programmes. The Director-General also oversaw a
pledging conference which attracted donations of CHF 30 million, a
figure twice the original target. The establishment of the new
Training Institute will enable the WTO to double (to about 400) the
number of developing country officials it trains each year. Mr. Moore
is also working to develop a programme of WTO Trade Policy courses in
Africa, in which the WTO secretariat will work with university
partners on the continent to assist in setting up the curriculum, in
the selection of the trainees and in ensuring quality control.
The
discussion with regional bank leaders on 3 May will include a private
session and an informal dialogue between the Agency Heads,
Representatives and WTO Members Governments. At the end of the
morning, the WTO will sign Memoranda of Understanding with the Arab
Monetary Fund.
The
dialogue will explore ways and means of enhancing the cooperation
between the WTO and the regional development banks and better
coordinating the trade-related programmes, projects and other
activities, for developing and least-developed countries. Attention
will focus on how to provide beneficiary countries with concrete
assistance to enhance their participation in the open, rules-based
multilateral trading system. Issues to be discussed include, trade
mainstreaming, grant and loan funding of trade-related technical
assistance projects, trade financing, supporting coordinated policy
dialogue amongst trade and finance ministers, as well as support for
negotiating teams and intensive technical assistance, training and
capacity building for the Doha negotiations.
BACKGROUND:
The
invitation from Mr. Moore to the Heads of the regional development
banks followed informal discussions held on the margins of a meeting
of Trade and Finance Ministers organized by President Enrique
Iglesias at the Inter-American Development (IDB), in Washington, in
February, this year, and another meeting on the margins of the recent
Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development. WTO Members in the
agreed Organization Plan for Technical Assistance for 2002, had also
requested the Secretariat to engage Regional Development Banks in a
strategic partnership in order to seek a more effective implementation
of the Doha trade and development agenda. Such a partnership would
draw on the regional knowledge and assets of the Banks. Furthermore,
the Heads of the Integrated Framework core Agencies(1),
in a Joint Communiqué adopted, at the World Bank, in Washington, on
26 February, also agreed that Regional Development Banks, should be
associated in the implementation of the Integrated Framework, focused
on 49 Least Developed Countries.
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Note:
1.
IMF,
ITC, UNCTAD, UNDP, World Bank, WTO. back to text
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Director-General
Mike Moore convenes first informal dialogue with heads of regional
development banks on the implementation of the Doha Development Agenda