World Bank adds Nigeria to countries risking collapse
Creamer's Media Engineering News
A World Bank unit added 14 countries to its list of nations at risk of collapse, including Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer.
The number of so-called fragile states rose to 26 in 2006 from 17 three years ago, the Independent Evaluation Group of the World Bank said in a report released in Singapore today. They now include East Timor, Cambodia and Kosovo. Nigeria was added because of an increase in corruption and deteriorating governance.
“If something new happens in oil-producing states like Angola, it could push up the price of oil,” said Tetsu Emori, the chief commodities strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures Ltd. in Tokyo.
“A production decline in Nigeria will also affect oil prices although the violence in that country is already priced in.”
The potential failure of countries including Nigeria and Angola, China's biggest oil supplier this year, threatens to boost energy and commodities prices and slow economic growth. Oil has fallen 19 percent since reaching a record $78,40 on July 14.
The group is also concerned that terrorism, drug production and weapon smuggling are spiraling.
“Neglecting the fragile states, half of whom are living in extreme poverty, risks a worsening of their misery,” said Vinod Thomas, the group's director general. That in turn will feed “regional and global instability”.
The group, which reports to the World Bank's board of executive directors rather than President Paul Wolfowitz, defines fragile states as low-income nations that score three or less on a scale of one to six measuring economic policies, social equality and public-sector management.
Angola, the world's third-largest diamond producer in 2003, is emerging from civil war. Half a million people were killed in battles that began after the African nation gained independence from Portugal in 1975. In the Republic of Congo, which earns more than half its income from oil, about 4-million people died, mostly from disease and starvation, during two civil wars between 1996 and 2002.
“There could be large global spillovers if they don't do well,” Soniya Carvalho, lead author of “Engaging with Fragile States: An IEG Review of World Bank Support to Low-Income Countries Under Stress”, said in an interview.
“They could become hotbeds of terrorist activity because there are large ungoverned areas. The imperative to do something in fragile states is very great.”
Donors don't want to spend money in such countries because their governments don't have the capacity to use the funds effectively to reduce poverty, according to the report.
The World Bank, which has lent $4,1-billion to the fragile states in the past two years, and other donors need to boost investment in developing local expertise after conflicts, Carvalho said. In East Timor donors may have pulled out too quickly, she said.
Civil unrest erupted in March in East Timor, which is about 500 kilometers (311 miles) north of Australia, after former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri dismissed 600 soldiers for deserting.
Clashes between security forces escalated into fighting between armed gangs, killing 37 people and forcing 155 000 people from their homes.
Timor's share of oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea is about $10-billion according to the Australian government. Half the population lacks safe drinking water. About 60 out of 1 000 infants die before their first birthday and life expectancy is just over 55, according to a United Nations report in March.
Governments in countries such as Afghanistan are also burdened with too much legislation pushed by donors without prioritisation. Afghanistan has to pass 120 new laws, according to the report.
“Each donor has their pet areas and they support those and want changes to be made, but it adds up to a very formidable program,” Carvalho said. “This kind of overload is quite killing.”
Other fragile states include the Central African Republic, which has diamond, uranium, gold and oil deposits, Comoros, Cote d'Ivoire, Eritrea, Guinea, Kosovo, the Solomon Islands, Togo, Vanuatu, West Bank and Gaza, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Laos, Liberia, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe.
The number of so-called fragile states rose to 26 in 2006 from 17 three years ago, the Independent Evaluation Group of the World Bank said in a report released in Singapore today. They now include East Timor, Cambodia and Kosovo. Nigeria was added because of an increase in corruption and deteriorating governance.
“If something new happens in oil-producing states like Angola, it could push up the price of oil,” said Tetsu Emori, the chief commodities strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures Ltd. in Tokyo.
“A production decline in Nigeria will also affect oil prices although the violence in that country is already priced in.”
The potential failure of countries including Nigeria and Angola, China's biggest oil supplier this year, threatens to boost energy and commodities prices and slow economic growth. Oil has fallen 19 percent since reaching a record $78,40 on July 14.
The group is also concerned that terrorism, drug production and weapon smuggling are spiraling.
“Neglecting the fragile states, half of whom are living in extreme poverty, risks a worsening of their misery,” said Vinod Thomas, the group's director general. That in turn will feed “regional and global instability”.
The group, which reports to the World Bank's board of executive directors rather than President Paul Wolfowitz, defines fragile states as low-income nations that score three or less on a scale of one to six measuring economic policies, social equality and public-sector management.
Angola, the world's third-largest diamond producer in 2003, is emerging from civil war. Half a million people were killed in battles that began after the African nation gained independence from Portugal in 1975. In the Republic of Congo, which earns more than half its income from oil, about 4-million people died, mostly from disease and starvation, during two civil wars between 1996 and 2002.
“There could be large global spillovers if they don't do well,” Soniya Carvalho, lead author of “Engaging with Fragile States: An IEG Review of World Bank Support to Low-Income Countries Under Stress”, said in an interview.
“They could become hotbeds of terrorist activity because there are large ungoverned areas. The imperative to do something in fragile states is very great.”
Donors don't want to spend money in such countries because their governments don't have the capacity to use the funds effectively to reduce poverty, according to the report.
The World Bank, which has lent $4,1-billion to the fragile states in the past two years, and other donors need to boost investment in developing local expertise after conflicts, Carvalho said. In East Timor donors may have pulled out too quickly, she said.
Civil unrest erupted in March in East Timor, which is about 500 kilometers (311 miles) north of Australia, after former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri dismissed 600 soldiers for deserting.
Clashes between security forces escalated into fighting between armed gangs, killing 37 people and forcing 155 000 people from their homes.
Timor's share of oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea is about $10-billion according to the Australian government. Half the population lacks safe drinking water. About 60 out of 1 000 infants die before their first birthday and life expectancy is just over 55, according to a United Nations report in March.
Governments in countries such as Afghanistan are also burdened with too much legislation pushed by donors without prioritisation. Afghanistan has to pass 120 new laws, according to the report.
“Each donor has their pet areas and they support those and want changes to be made, but it adds up to a very formidable program,” Carvalho said. “This kind of overload is quite killing.”
Other fragile states include the Central African Republic, which has diamond, uranium, gold and oil deposits, Comoros, Cote d'Ivoire, Eritrea, Guinea, Kosovo, the Solomon Islands, Togo, Vanuatu, West Bank and Gaza, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Laos, Liberia, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe.
4 comments:
better to colape soon so we all can live in peace!
I'm not surpised with this finding.
After Angkor period to Sihanouk reign and to present regime, Cambodian people used to see their Governments/country collapsed and shrunk in chaos and anarchy many times. Khmer is made up by AKSOR "KHOR" alphabet. Can anyone name some words in Khmer that make up by AKSOR "KHOR"? I'm afraid to name all of them. Majority of them are not sound good.
My advise to AH HUN SEN! Please move your family to Cuba or Vietname because the time will come and you will know what I mean!
Fucken traitor! What you have done to Cambodia and you will pay back with you life! The dark force is following you wherever you go!
I know you believe in black magic and let hope that your black magic will help you this time!
Cambodia receives around US$600 millions in aid from the international community annually. Yet, it's still on this unfavourable list. As always, Hun Sen will swear and say the World Bank gets the facts wrong. He knows everything about Cambodia, because it is "my lands, my state properties, my forest, my oil, my beaches, my islands, my money, my etc."
If Cambodia becomes a failed state, Hun Sen and his family will live comfortably in a few other countries where he keeps most of his money. But, there are still some juicy bones left to scrape in Cambodia: potential oil fields, state properties, and the remaining forest in the national parks. The black magic of Wat Champous Kaek is believed to have given him supreme power over others to acquire his ill-gotten wealth and to eliminate his opposition.
It's Pchum Ben time when the deceased souls will visit pagodas in search of the offerings from their relatives. Those corrupt individuals will also turn up at the pagodas in their brand new Landcruiser and Lexus SUVs and receive heaps of blessing from Buddhist monks in VIP rooms for their more-than-average donations. Those who make an honest living will not get this kind of treatment. What is happening to our faith? Why those rich individuals, whose corruption and impunity have caused suffering and death to countless Cambodians, have not been punished for their sins?
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