World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn emphasized the importance of development in creating a stable world. The wry Australian told an almost full Gaston Hall that child and youth issues are the most important facing the world today.
“Poor people are an asset,” he said. He said that developing world should spend less and defense and more on foreign aid. Such a policy is in their interest, he said, in the war on terrorism. He said, however, that he did not intend to portray the poor as terrorists.
“I’ve never said that people that are poor are going to go out and shoot you; in fact, poor people are quite passive, all our studies have shown, ” he said.
