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Washington - In affirmation of Vietnam's remarkable progress towards Middle Income Country status, the World Bank Board of Directors have approved a second loan for Vietnam from the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). The loan for Vietnam's power sector reforms received the green light together with four other operations to support poverty alleviation, health care and critical infrastructure development in traditionally vulnerable areas of Northern Vietnam, the Red River Delta and rapidly urbanizing Ho Chi Minh City.

WASHINGTON - The World Bank has approved a EUR26 million (USD$36.3 million equivalent) loan to the Republic of Croatia aimed at further improving the efficiency of Croatia's justice system − a necessary process in Croatia's path towards successful European Union accession.

Washington - The World Bank has approved a $461 million in additional financing to the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, in support of the Second Minas Gerais Partnership for Development, an innovative public sector reform that resulted in significant improvements in the services provided by the State.

WASHINGTON - The World Bank's Board of Directors approved a US$30 million loan today, aimed at reducing the number and seriousness of traffic accidents in Argentina's road system, a South American country that registers a death rate from traffic accidents of 18.7 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in the region.

New York: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed concern over reports that demonstrators in Kyrgyzstan had seized a Government building and urged them to show restraint and respect the rule of law.

The announcement that the United Progressive Alliance will reconstitute the National Advisory Council under Ms Sonia Gandhi has not come a day too soon. The original NAC died a premature death primarily because Ms Gandhi quit it and also resigned her Lok Sabha seat in the wake of the office-of-profit controversy. Her long absence from the NAC deprived it of its authority. Now that the law has been amended to exempt the NAC from the scope of offices-of-profit, it's entirely appropriate that the Council be formed again to counsel the UPA on fulfilling its promise—made before the 2004 general elections, and reiterated in 2009—to bring about “inclusive growth” in which the aam aadmi has a vital stake.

Sonia Gandhi's return as the head of the National Advisory Council does not augur well for fiscal discipline. Along with her band of socialists like Mani Shankar Aiyar, who never fails to mock India's high growth rate, Aruna Roy, Jean Dreze and Harsh Mander, there is every chance of an energetic advocacy of populist measures based on a reckless doling out of money in the name of the poor.

New York: United Nations aid agencies and their partners in Niger has appealed for an additional $132.9 million to fund humanitarian programmes in the West African country, which is facing a severe food crisis following poor harvests caused by inadequate rainfall last year.

The global financial crisis has continued to affect Cameroon's economy through weak external demand for the country's main export commodities, a decline in average international oil prices in 2009 compared with 2008, and delays in foreign direct investments. As a result, economic activity, the fiscal accounts, and the external current account have been adversely impacted. The impact was, however, less severe than originally anticipated, owing to the authorities' appropriate policy response, the Fund financial support under the rapid access component of the Exogenous Shocks Facility, and the global recovery now underway. Economic growth slowed to 2.0 percent in 2009 from 2.9 percent in 2008.

The Doha Development Round of multilateral trade negotiations, ambitiously launched at the start of the 21st century, is yet to see the end of the tunnel, after almost a decade of frustrating official-level negotiating processes mainly over freeing up trade in agriculture and industrial goods with due safeguards for poorer countries. Overall, none of the leading players seems willing to translate their oft-repeated political commitments into give-and-take offers to bridge the numerous gaps in negotiating drafts on the table.