Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Zimbabwe to be an "example"

I was very happy when Paul Wolfowitz was elected head of the World Bank and I am glad I was right:

The World Bank may withhold further aid to Zimbabwe to "set an example" over the situation under President Robert Mugabe, its chief Paul Wolfowitz said on Tuesday.

The World Bank would be allocating its funds "very, very carefully, and in the case of Zimbabwe perhaps not at all," he told reporters here on the first stop of a regional tour.

"My Africa experts say that with the kind of misgovernment that is taking place in Zimbabwe, it is not clear that development is possible at all.

"For several reasons we have to be very careful about corruption and its effects. We need to set an example. It is a terrible waste of funds if it is diverted into corruption."

In a report published last week, the World Bank's sister institution, the International Monetary Fund, expressed "deep concern" at the situation in Zimbabwe, with growth crashing, inflation rampant and poverty soaring.

The more I see what Wolfowitz is trying to do, the more I like him.

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