11 Oct 2012

TOKYO / JIM YONG KIM

The World Bank President said today (11 October), “Our job at the World Bank Group now is to make sure that the growth over the last five years in the developing countries of Africa and Latin America andAsia, is not destroyed by further worsening in this situation." WORLD BANK

Posted at: October 11, 2012 1:17 pm

Duration: 02:49

Available in: SD, HD

DOWNLOAD

Full script

STORY: TOKYO / JIM YONG KIM 
TRT: 2.49
SOURCE: WORLD BANK
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 11 OCTOBER 2012, TOKYO, JAPAN

1. Wide shot, Wide, Jim Yong Kim walks on stage
2. Cutaway, photographer
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Jim Yong Kim, President, World Bank:
"The economic announcements emanating in recent weeks have been sobering. Everyone is vulnerable during times of uncertainty but especially to the poor who have few if any safety nets and resources and live from day to day. Our job at the World Bank Group now is to make sure that the growth over the last five years in the developing countries of Africa and Latin America and Asia, is not destroyed by further worsening in this situation."
4. Cutaway, audience
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Jim Yong Kim, President, World Bank Group: 
"Every single economy in the world has to now be focused on the medium and long term prospects for growth. Because of the crisis I think there is a tendency to only look at the short term, how to respond to the crisis as it might hit us. But I think evidence is very good that the countries that start thinking right now about medium and long term competitiveness are going to do much better in the long run."
6. Cutaway, photographer
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Jim Yong Kim, President, World Bank Group: 
"We have a team in Myanmar right now and we're working with the government to really catalogue the arrears that have accumulated over the years. And our hope is that we can move forward very soon as a united global community to support the reforms and to help the people of Myanmar with things like heath, education, infrastructure and also to help Myanmar to boost its private sector so that more businesses can grow in that environment."
8. Cutaway, conference
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Jim Yong Kim, President, World Bank Group: 
"I think our task is to find ways of encouraging ever greater efforts at both mitigation and adaptation to climate change, but mitigation is really critical. Can we find ways of creating an enormous market for new technologies focused on mitigation of climate change? I think we simply must do it. So you're going to be hearing from me over the next six months, over the entire term of my presidency, you're going to hear me talking a lot about climate change. Now it's not going to be, I'm not going to just give you the doomsday picture, I think there are tremendously exciting possibilities to what it would look like to live in a very low carbon world and we simply have to find those opportunities and encourage the best and brightest countries and companies to seize that opportunities and to understand that their path to economic growth could very well be in engaging in finding new technologies and new approaches."
10. Wide shot, conference ends

STORYLINE:

The World Bank President said today that "the economic announcements emanating in recent weeks have been sobering".

Addressing the opening press conference of the 2012 World Bank annual meetings in Tokyo, Jim Yong Kim said that the World Bank's job now was to make sure that Africa's and Latin America's growth over the last five years was "not destroyed by further worsening in this situation".

Responding to how long he thought China's transition to a market economy would take and noting that China was willing to engage in a process that looked at their growth strategy, not over the next five years but over the next 10, 20 and 30 years, Kim said that the lesson to be learned from that was that, "every single economy in the world has to now be focused on the medium and long term prospects for growth".

He said that due to the crisis there was a tendency to only look at the short term, and how to respond to the crisis as it might hit. But, he added that "evidence is very good that the countries that start thinking right now about medium and long term competitiveness are going to do much better in the long run".

Asked by a national of Myanmar if he saw any possibility of giving more assistance to Myanmar or forgiving the country's debt, Kim said the World Bank had a team in Myanmar working with the government to "really catalogue the arrears that have accumulated over the years. And our hope is that we can move forward very soon as a united global community to support the reforms".

Responding to where did the World Bank stand in terms of cooperation particularly in the ASEAN region where countries are prone to disasters, and the effects of climate change, Kim said that his task was to find ways of encouraging greater efforts at both mitigation and adaptation to climate change, but he said, "mitigation is really critical. Can we find ways of creating an enormous market for new technologies focused on mitigation of climate change? I think we simply must do it".

Filed under IMF WORLD BANK.