World Bank admits Liberia into parliamentarian network

President of the World Bank Paul Wolfowitz on Friday announced the admission of Liberia into the Bank's parliamentarian network when he addressed the joint session of the legislature following his arrival in the country on a two- day visit.

Wolfowitz said the move by the Bank is intended to strengthen the capacity of the Liberian legislature to perform well.

"You must ensure that each tax dollar is spent wisely and you must also ensure that donors' aid is used for those who are most in need," Wolfowitz urged the legislators.

Giving a grim statistic of the situation in the West African state, Wolfowitz said "out of every 1,000 babies, about 157 die before their first birthday. Half of the children are out of school and four out five are out of job with majority of the citizens surviving on 120 U.S. dollars a year."

Describing this as "a human tragedy," Wolfowitz said the country is at a "cross road" and therefore urged the Legislators to help the government and its international partners sustain the peace.

Liberia, with the assistance of the international community is consolidating a peace process following 14 years of civil war which ended 2003.

There are about 15,000 United Nations peacekeeping troops in the West African state. Democratic elections were held in October and November of 2005 which saw the election of Ellen Johnson- Sirleaf as the first African woman president.

Wolfowitz commended the government and said that "within six months, the government has shown promising signs to recovery."

He said for the first time in as many years, the Liberian government has a budget that addresses the needs of the country. A 120 million U.S. dollars budget is now before the legislators for passage.

Although Wolfowitz acknowledged that rebuilding the country after many years of war will not happen overnight, he however assured that the IMF Staff Monitor Program would accelerate the country's recover.

Wolfowitz said the World Bank has committed 68 million dollars to the country for the creation of jobs in the short term. This he said would pave the way for growth in the country. "Liberia is walking into a brighter future," he said.

Source: Xinhua