DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
                 (Joint Ministerial Committee
                            of the
        Boards of Governors of the Bank and the Fund
                            on the
     Transfer of Real Resources to Developing Countries)

         ONE HUNDREDTH MEETING
      WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 19, 2019


                                                           DC/S/2019-0049
                                                           October 19, 2019




                       Statement by
                    H.E. Lim Guan Eng
                   Minister of Finance

                         Malaysia


 Representing the Constituency of Brunei Darussalam, Fiji,
Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore,
               Thailand, Tonga and Vietnam
                                             Statement by
                                          H.E. Lim Guan Eng
                                         Minister of Finance

                                                Malaysia

               Representing the Constituency of Brunei Darussalam, Fiji, Indonesia,
          Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga and Vietnam

                             100th Meeting of the Development Committee

                                            October 19, 2019
                                            Washington, DC

Firstly, we would like to thank Ms. Kristalina Georgieva for her effort in driving the World Bank’s agenda
and express our congratulations on her appointment as the new Managing Director of the IMF.

Global economic and financial conditions remain challenging. Growth momentum has slowed in most
major countries of both the developed and developing economies amid rising trade protectionism and
financial market volatilities as well as rapid technological advancements.

Against this backdrop, our constituency reaffirms our support to the World Bank Group (WBG)’s continued
effort to support member countries, particularly with the multilateral framework for trade and investment
through global value chains (GVCs). We also welcome the WBG’s engagement with member countries to
leverage on technological advancements to encourage better outcomes from the Bank’s Human Capital
Agenda.

In general, the South East Asia Voting Group (SEAVG) constituency looks to benefit better from the digital
revolution while undertaking crucial structural economic reforms for sustainable and inclusive economic
development.

Role of GVCs in Economic Development

International trade expanded rapidly after the 1990s from the rise of GVCs. Countries that participated
through the GVCs saw increased productivity and income growth as well as more job creation. Many
developing countries have also benefited from GVCs owing to policies that support trade openness as well
as facilitating measures to attract higher foreign direct investments. However, we need to move further up
the value chains to enhance growth. In this regard, the Bank should look to facilitate its members in terms
of improving regional digital integration, strengthening digital infrastructure linkages, streamlining and
better coordinating policy reforms to enhance trade and investment in the digital economy space.

The increase in global trade protectionism sentiments particularly in developed economies due to trade
conflict poses a threat to the developing and least developed countries. Countries should have the freedom
to maintain their domestic policies whilst supporting GVC participation, without compromising fair
competition and sustainability.

Therefore, we welcome WBG’s research on strengthening macroeconomic resilience against global
economic shocks in the GVCs; and provide timely country-specific policy advice in coordination with the
International Monetary Fund.
World Bank Group’s Human Capital Project Update

We welcome the update on the Human Capital Project and are very encouraged with the progress made in
the WBG’s work to improve the Human Capital Index (HCI) to produce actionable analysis to guide
Governments’ investment in human capital and improve the quality of service delivery.

The WBG can play a transformative role to accelerate human capital investment and equal access to
education in this new digital age, particularly among the middle and low income member countries. We
urge the Bank to provide more funding and technical support for capacity building to maximise
effectiveness and efficiency of finite education resources.

World Bank Group’s Jobs and Economic Transformation Agenda

On the Jobs and Economic Transformation (JET) agenda, we welcome the approach by WBG to bring
together analytics, policy advice and tools in country programmes aimed at identifying global job market
challenges, defining economic transformation and highlighting the speed of economic transformation in
addressing these challenges.

The WBG’s country diagnostics must systematically address policy coordination issues and provide a clear
understanding of the linkages between diverse economic sectors both within and across national boundaries.
It is crucial for the Bank to provide stronger technical support to improve digital interoperability across
systems; and to develop a database for historical policy implementation across countries.

Review of the International Development Association (IDA)’s Voting Rights

We welcome the timely proposed review of the IDA voting rights framework in addressing member
countries’ concerns such as the timely need for a review of the framework. We also support the proposed
guiding principles, scope and roadmap of the Review and urge the Board of Directors and Management to
provide regular updates to member countries.

Conclusion

We would like to express our appreciation to the WBG Board of Executive Directors and Management for
their concerted efforts on these priority areas and look forward to a timely progress for the benefit of all
members.




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