Economic Downturn Makes Development Economics Rethinking Crucial: World Bank Chief

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) --The global economic crisis had made the need for a rethink of development economics even more compelling, World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick said here on Wednesday.

In a speech prior to the Bank's annual meetings, he urged a rethink of development economics to make it more useful to policy makers and announced a reorientation of World Bank research so it taps more effectively the experiences in developing countries.

"There is a new opportunity, and certainly a pressing need, for dynamism in development economics. Software has brought new tools, and the Internet has brought new communications, and rising economies have brought new experiences," Zoellick said in addressing an audience at Georgetown University.

The annual meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund were poised to take place in early October in Washington.

Zoellick stressed that experience sharing among the bank's members should no longer be one-directional, which has been from developed countries to developing ones, experiences of developing members in fostering rapid economic growth should also be recognized and shared.

"A new multi-polar economy requires multi-polar knowledge," he said. "As economic tectonic plates have shifted, paradigms must shift too."

"The flow of knowledge is no longer North to South, West to East, rich to poor. Rising economies bring new approaches and solutions," he added.

Zoellick noted that emerging economies are now key variables in the global growth equation, and the developing world is becoming a driver of the global economy.

He emphasized that much of the recovery in world trade has been due to strong demand for imports among developing countries. Led by the emerging markets, developing countries now account for half of global growth and are leading the recovery in world trade.