WB accused of corruption

Maryam Sharaf, chief financial officer of Dubai World, complained at a plenary session that the bank concealed its operations behind a bureaucracy which led to corruption. "What is transparency to the World Bank?" he asked.

"What is transparency to business? When the World Bank has its own list of requirements (to do business). Where does that come from?"

To applause from delegates he said "We want partnerships: not hidden partnerships."

He also down-played the role of the bank in Africa saying that China has invested $9bn in Africa, and that India has invested much the same. The World Bank has invested $2.5bn. "We ourselves have invested $3.4bn," he said.

Dubai World is Dubai's global investment holding company. It operates a highly diversified spectrum of industrial segments and has played a major role in the emirate's rapid economic growth.

In the absence of anyone from the World Bank stepping up to defend the institution, Pat Davies, chief executive of Sasol who was a member of the discussion panel, said he would like to do it.

"Yes, there's bureaucracy," he admitted, but he insisted that when he has seen the bank in action it has brought capacity and systems and expertise to bear on the projects it was involved in.

The US assistant secretary of state for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, told the meeting that she had no intention of defending the bank. Indeed, she said, President Bush had made it clear that he favours the complete reform of the Bretton Woods institutions.

- I-Net Bridge