Caribbean National Weekly

Barbados PM Mia Mottley calls for reform of World Bank

By Santana Salmon··1 min read
Barbados PM Mia Mottley calls for reform of World Bank
Key Points(4)
  • Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has called on the World Bank to reform its operations to deal with a changing global environment saying it should follow the lead of the <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Home">International Monetary Fund</a> (IMF).
  • “The IMF is taking it from a different direction to avoid a balance of payments issue, we are making sure that you have a strong immune system.
  • “The World Bank needs to step up to the plate and start to say these are the global public goods that if we don’t guarantee their financing, they are going to jeopardize development across the world,” she said.
  • Mia Mottley said she hopes that Barbados at the end of July starts that discussion “with our partners in the United Nations and in the Rockefeller Foundation because it is the most critical discussion to avoid the next generation being poorer than this current generation.” CMC/ &nbsp;

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has called on the World Bank to reform its operations to deal with a changing global environment saying it should follow the lead of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“The World Bank regrettably is still now a relic of 1945 catering to 1945 issues and has not found itself into the 21st century,” Mottley told a panel discussion on “Building Resilience and Sustainability in the Caribbean.”

The discussion was moderated by Jamaica’s Finance and Public Service Minister, Dr. Nigel Clarke with the other panelists being the IMF managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, who is winding up a four-day visit and Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.

Mottley told the panel that the Washington-based financial institution needs to ensure that instead of “only focusing on the financing of low-income countries starts to look at being that financier of global public goods as the IMF is trying to do.

“The IMF is taking it from a different direction to avoid a balance of payments issue, we are making sure that you have a strong immune system.

“The World Bank needs to step up to the plate and start to say these are the global public goods that if we don’t guarantee their financing, they are going to jeopardize development across the world,” she said.

Mia Mottley said she hopes that Barbados at the end of July starts that discussion “with our partners in the United Nations and in the Rockefeller Foundation because it is the most critical discussion to avoid the next generation being poorer than this current generation.”

CMC/

 

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