World Bank
World Bank
World′ Bank′
n.
World Bank
| Noun | 1. | World Bank - a United Nations agency created to assist developing nations by loans guaranteed by member governments |
| 单词 | world bank | |||
| 释义 | World BankWorld BankWorld′ Bank′n. World Bank
World BankWorld Bank:see International Bank for Reconstruction and DevelopmentInternational Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)(IBRD), independent specialized agency of the United Nations, with headquarters at Washington, D.C.; one of five closely associated development institutions (also including the International Center for Settlement of ..... Click the link for more information. . World BankWorld BankThe International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, commonly referred to as the World Bank, is an international financial institution whose purposes include assisting the development of its member nations' territories, promoting and supplementing private foreign investment, and promoting long-range balanced growth in international trade. The World Bank was established in July 1944 at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. It opened for business in June 1946 and helped in the reconstruction of nations devastated by World War II. Since the 1960s the World Bank has shifted its focus from the advanced industrialized nations to developing third-world countries.The World Bank consists of a number of separate institutions. The three major institutions are the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The IBRD, the bank's most important component, lends funds directly, guarantees loans made by others, or participates in these loans. The IDA, which was established in 1960, lends to low-income countries on more favorable terms, charging a small service fee but no interest. It gets its funds from more affluent member countries. The IFC, established in 1956, provides loans to private business in developing countries. Twenty-nine nations joined the World Bank in 1945. By 1996 the bank had 180 members. The bank is governed by an executive board and a managing director. Voting in the bank is weighted according to the initial contributions to the bank's capital, which historically has given the U.S. government a dominant voice in the bank's affairs. In 1996 almost one-third of the bank's loans went to the world's poorest countries. However, the bank has moved away from financing large-scale infrastructure projects, such as roads, railways, and power facilities. Since the 1970s, the bank has provided an increasing number of loans to developing countries for agricultural, educational, and population programs. The goals of these loan programs have been to raise the standard of living and to increase self-sufficiency. The World Bank also offers advisory services to countries seeking to reform their banking and finance systems. It has also launched InfoDev, an initiative to secure resources from corporations, foundations, and governments to promote reform and investment in the developing world through improved access to information technology. In the late 1990s several coalitions of organizations and individuals formed Jubilee 2000 to campaign for debt-forgiveness for poor countries that found themselves unable to pay back the bank's loans. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund responded by establishing the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) that sought to provide relief for the world's most heavily indebted countries. In April 2000 World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn stated that he welcomed Jubilee 2000 and continuing public involvement for their contributions toward getting creditor countries to support the HIPC. Further readingsHowarth, David, and Peter Loedel. 2003. The European Central Bank: The New European Leviathan? New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Smith, Roy C., and Ingo Walter, eds. 2003. Global Banking. 2d ed. New York: Oxford Univ. Press. World Bank Website. Available online at <www.worldbank.org> (accessed August 17, 2003). Cross-referencesInternational Monetary Fund. World BankWorld BankWorld BankWorld Bank.Formally known as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the World Bank was established in 1944 to aid Europe and Asia after the devastation of World War II. To fulfill its current roles of providing financing for developing countries and making interest-free and low-interest long-term loans to poor nations, the World Bank raises money by issuing bonds to individuals, institutions, and governments in more than 100 countries. World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development)an international institution established in 1947 whose purpose is to assist countries to develop their economies by the provision of economic aid in the form of loans and technical assistance. The World Bank supports a wide range of projects in the less developed countries including the establishment of infrastructure (roads, gas and water supplies, schools and hospitals), the modernization of traditional industries (farm mechanization and cultivation techniques) and the setting up of new industries (iron and steel, textiles etc.).The Bank's resources are provided largely by subscriptions from the advanced countries, although it also issues its own securities to raise additional funds. Generally, the Bank lends on a commercial basis – loans are repayable and bear market-related interest charges – but it also provides low-interest (‘soft’) loans through its affiliate the Industrial Development Association, while a further affiliate, the International Finance Corporation invests in share capital in selected companies. World BankorInternational Bank for Reconstruction and Developmentan international organization established in 1947 as the ‘International Bank forReconstruction and Development’ (following the Bretton Woods Conference, 1944) to provide ECONOMIC AID to member countries. The World Bank is based in Washington, DC, USA, and currently has a membership of 181 countries. The Bank's name reflects its earlier involvement in the ‘reconstruction’ of ruined economies after the Second World War, but for most of its existence the provision of economic aid to support ‘development’ of the economies of DEVELOPING COUNTRIES has been its almost exclusive concern. The Bank provides a mechanism for channelling multilateral economic aid from its richer members to developing countries/‘emerging economies’, but, additionally, it has the power to raise its own capital resources on the world's leading stock exchanges. The Bank supplies not only foreign exchange to finance development projects but also provides expert personnel and promotes ‘technology transfer’ from advanced countries to the developing countries as a means of upgrading their economic capabilities. The Bank has supported a wide range of long-term investments, including infrastructure projects such as roads, telecommunications and electricity and water supply; agricultural and industrial projects, including the establishment of new industries, as well as social, training and educational programmes. In general, the Bank operates according to ‘business principles’, lending at commercial rates of interest only to those governments it feels are capable of servicing and repaying their debts. In 1960, however, it established an affiliate agency, the International Development Association, to provide low-interest loans to its poorer members. Another affiliate of the Bank is the International Finance Corporation, which can invest directly in companies by acquiring shares. In 2003 the World Bank's cumulative outstanding loans totalled $USA 525,000 million. The major recipients of these loans were India ($60,000 million), China ($37,000 million), Mexico ($35,000 million), Brazil ($33,000 million) and Indonesia ($30,000 million). World Bank
Synonyms for World Bank
|
|||
| 随便看 |
|
英语词典包含2567994条英英释义在线翻译词条，基本涵盖了全部常用单词的英英翻译及用法，是英语学习的有利工具。