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03/19/2006:

"World Bank says not withdrawing from Uzbekistan"

WASHINGTON, March 16 (Reuters) - The World Bank will continue to operate in Uzbekistan despite a decision by the lender's president last week to suspend new lending to the Central Asian country, a bank spokesman said on Thursday.
"The bank is not pulling out," said Nick van Praag, World Bank spokesman for Europe and Central Asia. "We will remain engaged and continue to implement an existing portfolio of projects," he added.

The bank currently has six active development projects in Uzbekistan, in areas including health, water supply and waste management. Between 1992 and 2005, the bank had approved $639 million for 16 projects there.

Van Praag said the bank would proceed with analytical, capacity building and technical assistance services in Uzbekistan and, if the government wishes, it could finance projects that have a "global public good" dimension such as bird flu.

But he also said the environment in Uzbekistan was "not conducive to the development process and the kind of impact we'd like to see."

The bank has denied that the Uzbekistan decision was part of a clampdown on corruption by World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz in countries the bank operates in. Watchdog group Transparency International has cited the country as one of the world's most corrupt.
news.yahoo.com

Wolfie knows corrupt, I'll tell you what...