Mauritania starts World Bank chief's Africa tour
by Lesley Wroughton

Reuters    Translate This Article
28 January 2008

NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - World Bank President Robert Zoellick arrived in Mauritania on Sunday for talks on how to develop the west African nation's growing economy and ease widespread poverty there.

Mauritania, which straddles Black and Arab west Africa, is being transformed by the prospect of large offshore oil reserves, rich fish stocks and mineral resources, notably iron-ore, copper and gold.

The World Bank has slowly stepped up its work in Mauritania since a bloodless coup in 2005 that led to multi-party elections last year and $2.1 billion in donor promises, including large pledges from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

'You have a sense here that medium-term prospects are very positive, that the recent (political and economic) changes are very encouraging, but that the challenges in the coming three years are significant,' the World Bank's country manager to Mauritania, Francois Rantrua, told Reuters.

'The Bank can play a key role, especially when it comes to alleviating poverty, helping the government reform the administration and fight corruption and harnessing private sector-led growth,' he said.

The World Bank chief, making his first tour of Africa since taking over at the World Bank in July 2007, is also due to visit Liberia, Mozambique and Ethiopia, where he will attend the African Union summit.

The visit to Mauritania by Zoellick, a former U.S. trade representative, comes just a month after the killing in December of four French tourists by suspected Islamic militants linked to al Qaeda.

Those deaths and the killing of three soldiers in the remote desert north which was claimed by al Qaeda, led to the cancellation of this year's Paris-Dakar motor rally on French government advice.

President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi condemned the incidents but also criticised France's 'over-reaction' to the attacks, which Mauritania regards as isolated incidents.

Despite conflicts and instability across much of the continent, Africa has in recent years enjoyed its best economic growth in decades.

The World Bank has attributed this robust economic performance to favourable international conditions and improved economic policies, but a marked slowdown in global growth has cast a shadow on future developments.

Africa is reliant on commodity exports and so is the region most vulnerable to any decline in energy and mineral prices, which could be dampened by a global downturn.

However, demand for commodities from the fast-growing economies of China and India mean that it remains unclear how exactly the slowdown will affect Africa.

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