With resolution of the crisis surrounding the World Bank’s leadership, the Bank’s country director for China and Mongolia, David Dollar, has called for renewed focus on the organization’s important work in the field.

"This issue has been a distraction. Now that it is resolved and behind us, we can focus all our efforts on assisting developing countries with their considerable development challenges," Mr. Dollar said. "In China our key priority is to support the government’s efforts to build a harmonious society that addresses key environmental and social issues. In Mongolia we are helping both with the urbanization of the capital city as well as with improving livelihoods of the rural population."

"While this process has been difficult, it shows in fact that the World Bank is serious when we talk about governance," Mr. Dollar said. "We are determined to confront governance matters head-on within our institution, in the same way that we encourage our client countries to do."

The World Bank supports China’s development with about 75 ongoing projects and US$1.5 billion per year in new lending.

The focus in recent years has been on innovative projects that bring new technologies or new approaches to addressing environmental and social issues, with a particular focus on western and central China.

World Bank support in the Loess Plateau has resulted in significant reforestation and large gains in farmers’ incomes. In Xi’an the municipality and the Bank are working on an innovative project to improve public transport, build bike lanes among the city’s famous cultural sites, and reduce air pollution.

 In the more prosperous coastal regions the Bank’s work focuses primarily on environmental issues such as clean-up of the Pearl River in Guangdong, wetlands protection in Hangzhou Bay, and desulpherization of power plants in Shandong.

The centerpiece of the Bank’s assistance to Mongolia this year is expansion of its highly successful Sustainable Livelihoods Project. The project provides rural communities with grants for the small-scale investments that they deem most important, such as rehabilitation of schools, public baths, roads, and wells.

The World Bank has combined US$32 million its own resources with a US$13 million grant from the European Union to provide US$45 million to expand the program to cover all of Mongolia. 

(China Development Gateway May 18, 2007)