July 11, 1988 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 17565 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS REMARKS OF WORLD BANK language and priorities were similar to my development brings to the poorest coun­ PRESIDENT BARBER CONABLE own. tries, $60 goes to increased consumption-in­ TO MEMBERS OF THE EUROPE­ I now serve the four and a half billion cluding consumption of food from efficient AN PARLIAMENT AND THE U.S. people in the Bank's 151 member countries American and European farms. through the 22 Executive Directors on our I can demonstrate that the modernization CONGRESS Board. And those directors have the votes. of an obsolescent steel facility in Latin I propose. They dispose. America will boost the purchasing power of HON. TOM LANTOS I also have responsibility for some 5,500 that region and, therefore, of its imports expert, dedicated, diverse members of the from the United States and the European OF CALIFORNIA World Bank staff. Community. And it will do so without cut­ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES And finally, I am accountable not just for ting into existing domestic demand for steel. Monday, July 11, 1988 the $20 billion or so of funds that the World I can even show how dependent global Bank Group <which includes the Interna­ export growth is on the health of the devel­ Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, many of our col­ tional Development Association, the Inter­ oping countries' economies, how nearly a leagues, when they leave this body, take a national Finance Corporation and the third of added U.S. sales abroad last year well-earned retirement. Others undertake new newly-created Multilateral Investment was due to growth in Asian, African and and more difficult challenges. Our distin­ Guarantee Agency) loaned to our members Latin American markets, how over a million guished former colleague, Barber Conable, this year. I also am accountable to the American jobs were lost early this decade has taken on a task that is even more difficult, global financial markets where we borrow when Third World demand sank. the pace more hectic, and the travel schedule over 85 percent of the funds we loan to de­ As the head of an international institu­ even more onerous than that which he experi­ velopment. tion, however, I cannot make those points to When I was a Member of Congress, I sup­ my former colleagues in the Congress with enced with us here for some 20 years in Con­ ported the World Bank, but I must admit I either the directness or the informality that gress. At the same time as President of the didn't spend a lot of time thinking about comes of being one of them. World Bank, Barber has found a unique op­ what it did or how it did it. Nor did most of If I could, I would just say what a Los An­ portunity to make a great difference through­ my colleagues, or my constituents. geles Times editorial said a few months ago: out the world. I suspect, in fact, that there is a good deal The World Bank Works. Recently, Barber addressed the members of more awareness among Europeans than That has been something of a secret, but I the delegations of the U.S. Congress and the among Americans about both the Bank and have found it to be the truth. European Parliament who participated in an the problems it handles. The Bank works most remarkably in mul­ History has made Europeans closer to the tiplying the human, intellectual and finan­ important series of interparliamentary meet­ developing countries. Patterns of finance, cial resources that the world can bring to ings. trade and immigration have preserved some bear on the problems and the potential of Mr. Speaker, the comments of our former of that legacy. development. colleague are particularly interesting and in­ And at least until some 40 years ago, the By itself, our lending would have, at most, sightful for all of us in the Congress. He ap­ relative self-sufficiency of the United States marginal impact. proaches his position with the unique perspec­ economy meant that Americans directed But we are more than just the largest tive and experience of one who has served in most of their energies and attention to single source of new funds for both the this body for 20 years. But he also has the themselves. It's a tradition that is hard to poorest nations and for the highly-indebted perspective of one who has now served for break. middle-income countries. Yet the United States was a primary The World Bank Group is also the mag­ several years as the head of this international moving force in the establishment of the netic force that draws the assets of borrow­ agency concerned with questions of economic Bank and the other Bretton Woods institu­ er governments together with private and development. tions <the IMF and GATT> at the end of public financing from outside and joins Mr. Speaker, I ask that the remarks of our World War II. these elements to cement new alliances for colleague, Barber Conable, be placed in the In general, if they think about it, Ameri­ long-term development. RECORD for the benefit of all of us who will be cans still understand and accept the validity Nor is money our only contribution to the of the premises that guide our work. process. voting and taking action on issues involving They agree that the persistence of misery The rigor with which applications are ana­ the World Bank and international develop­ is both a moral rebuke to the affluent na­ lyzed, projects monitored and results eval­ ment. tions and a security threat to the world. uated is more intense and draws from a REMARKS OF BARBER CONABLE TO AN INTER­ They realize that the problems of poverty deeper pool of experience and skill than PARLIAMENTARY MEETING OF REPRESENTA­ are urgent, yet susceptible only to gradual most governments, donor agencies or com­ TIVES OF THE U.S. CONGRESS AND THE EURO­ remedy. mercial lenders can pay to maintain or mo­ PEAN PARLIAMENT And they acknowledge that international bilize. cooperation is the best means of building a That examination may slow our decisions. Chairman Haensch, Excellencies, Mem­ more widely shared prosperity and of reduc­ It does not always save us from error. bers of the European Parliament and of ing the tensions that can otherwise pit poor But it makes the World Bank seal of ap­ Congress, Ladies and Gentlemen, neighbors against rich in the global village. proval on an undertaking a guarantee to It is a pleasure to be with so many distin­ But those general principles, even when other investors. guished legislators. I'm grateful to Tom they are widely held, do not translate auto­ So one secret of the way the World Bank Lantos not only for the invitation to meet matically into political priorities. works is in its leverage. new friends, such as Klaus Haensch, but Interdependence is a reality, but it can I use that word in three senses. also for the chance to rejoin old friends at also seem a little abstract when farmer-con­ The obvious, financial one is the power of the Capitol where I spent 20 rewarding stituents believe that support for the World a World Bank loan to catalyze other re­ years as a Member of Congress. Bank is helping foreign competitors or sources. I find myself now in a very different set­ when steel or textile workers at home fear While I was in the Congress, I, like many, ting, and I thought you might be interested that investments abroad might cost them tended to hold dear the power that goes to hear about the World Bank from a jobs and markets. with dispensing aid or credit on a bilateral former American lawmaker who has lost his I know about those pressures, because I basis. most valued power-the vote-while gaining used to be on the receiving end of them in It seemed such an obvious equation, one responsibilities that have to be carried out the Congress, and I still am, at one move, that assured a close match between interna­ through quiet persuasion. in the Bank. tional generosity and national self-interest. As a Congressman I represented some Now, I can cite statistics that show that But the truth-particularly in a time of 500,000 constituents whose backgrounds, for every $100 of added per capita income serious fiscal constraints on the govern- e This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. 17566 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS July 11, 1988 ments of Europe and North America-is poverty is often the worst enemy of the en­ confidence that the Lord would help him that multilateral assistance is exceptionally vironment. and that he had done nothing to help. cost-effective. Too often it is not the big logging compa­ The Lord replied, "Well, on the other It may appear to dilute the direct influ­ ny, but the legions of slash-and-burn culti­ hand, I did send two boats and a helicop­ ence of the giver or creditor on the benefici­ vators that do the most harm to the forest. ter." ary, but it actually magnifies the impact of Poor farmers in need of fuelwood are Around the world, the World Bank pro­ a single nation's action by joining it with rarely the best guardians of trees that hold vides the rowboats and the helicopters that others.