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by Veronica Smith PRAGUE (AFP) - Top finance officials calmly debated global growth prospects and the scourge of world poverty here Tuesday, safely removed from battles outside their conference hall between police and anti-globalization militants.
Nearly 100 people were injured in scuffles and clashes around the hilltop Congress Center on the opening day of the annual plenary session of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, the Czech news agency CTK reported. Protesters had vowed to disrupt the meetings to call attention to the plight of the world's poor, which they blame in large part on the two Washington-based international financial institutions. By late afternoon delegates - finance ministers and central bank governors from the 182 IMF member countries - were denied permission to leave a security perimeter on foot set up by Czech police around the Soviet-era conference center. But a special metro train was later put into service Tuesday night to take delegates home, including IMF Managing Director Horst Koehler and World Bank President James Wolfensohn, and to prevent encounters with lingering protesters. Inside the heavily guarded Congress Center, top finance officials - men in suits for the most part - spent the day listening to speeches on world poverty and economic growth. "I am aware of the critical debate about globalization and many questions have been raised that have to be of concern to all of us," Koehler told the gathering. "But I also want to be clear: if the IMF did not exist already, this would be the time to invent it." The Fund and the Bank have been denounced for imposing harsh conditions on poor countries that borrow from them, conditions that force local authorities to divert scarce resources away from health, education and the environment. Critics contend that the IMF's support for globalization - the unfettered flow of capital across national borders - has harmed the poor and degraded the environment. But Koehler noted that private initiative and democracy were spreading around the world and insisted, "a fair judgment should acknowledge that the Fund has contributed to his positive fundamental trend in the world." Wolfensohn of the World Bank likewise stood up for globalization in his opening address. "We cannot turn back globalization," he told his audience at the fortress-like Soviet-era center built on a hill overlooking the capital. "Our challenge is to make globalization an instrument of opportunity and inclusion - not of fear and insecurity." Wolfensohn, who last week engaged in a testy exchange with non-governmental organizations critical of the Bank, also alluded to the protests. "Outside these walls, young people are demonstrating against globalization. "I believe deeply that many of them are asking legitimate questions, and I embrace the commitment of a new generation to fight poverty. "But I believe we can move forward only if we deal with each other constructively and with mutual respect." He mounted a vigorous defense of his five years as president, noting that when he came to the institution, it had not been engaged in post-conflict activities. The Bank is now involved in more than 35 countries emerging from strife, he said. Debt relief for the most heavily indebted poor countries did not exist. Now such aid has been agreed for 10 countries and 20 is the target by year-end, he told delegates. "And we are closer to our clients," he said. "We now have half of our country directors and 2,300 staff in the field. And we are more transparent - disclosing over 85% of our country assistance strategies, up from none five years ago." |
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