Published: March 2, 2013
Heads of the IMF, EBRD, AfDB and others meet to discuss encouraging long-term investment across regions.
Leaders of the some of the world's largest multilateral development institutions have pledged close collaboration to support the development of the regions they cover.
Heads of the African Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Inter-American Development Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank Group met to discuss efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, which include ending poverty and hunger, increasing access to education and health care, and ensuring environmental sustainability.
The leaders pledged to work together to develop options for encouraging long-term investment to strengthen economic growth and called for a renewed focus on financing for development.
“The very large gaps in development finance mean we’ll need to search for ever better ways to encourage investment,” said Min Zhu, deputy managing director of the IMF, following the meeting. “Recent economic crises which have put so many people at a risk of falling into poverty mean we need to do more to promote macroeconomic stability, and to build strong and transparent financial systems.”
“The development challenges we face at the global and national levels are of such scale that we must work together,” added Suma Chakrabarti, president of the EBRD. “It’s not only a question of financial resources, but of ensuring we can deliver the best available knowledge, best people, and best models of cooperation to our clients. They expect nothing less, and we aim to deliver nothing short of their expectations.”