ID :
26669
Sun, 10/26/2008 - 19:10
Auther :

Ban wants more active role for I.M.F. in present crisis

New York, Oct 25 (PTI) The United Nations Secretary General Ban ki-moon has called for "drastic measures" including giving a leading role for the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.) to aid crisis stricken countries by the recent international financial upheaval.

He said that I.M.F. and World's major central banks
should set up substantial standby lines of credit so that
banks in poor country have adequate funds to draw in an
emergency.

Addressing a meeting called to take stock of the current
economic crisis on the Millennium Development Goals, Ban
ki-moon said " we can be effective only if we act together,
with one voice and a common purpose.

He said the poorest of the world's poor deserve immediate
support to help them endure the global financial crisis,
warning that recent hard-won progress on poverty could be lost
unless concerted action is taken.

At the meeting of the Chief Executives Board (C.E.B.),
which brings together the heads of various U.N. agencies and
entities, including the World Bank, the U.N. Secretary General
said all countries must take greater steps to ensure that the
most vulnerable are not left behind.

"The crisis we are seeing today will impact all
countries, developed and developing, but its most serious
repercussions will be felt most by those who are least
responsible the poor in developing countries."

"As we look to the next seven years of the
implementation of the Millennium Development Goals to 2015, we
must ensure that hard-won gains by countries are not reversed
and must act to avert the risk of millions in poor countries
sliding back into extreme poverty," he added.

Top U.N. officials attending the meeting called on all
States to reaffirm their commitments and pledges to grant
Official Development Assistance (O.D.A.) to needy countries.
PTI

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