WB's New Strategy Supports Greener and More Inclusive Growth in China

The World Bank Group’s Board of Directors today discussed a new Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) for the People’s Republic of China covering the Bank’s fiscal years 2013-2016. The Board endorsed the strategy’s overall goals of helping China achieve greener growth, more inclusive development, and mutually beneficial relations with the world.

"China and the Bank Group have enjoyed a strong partnership spanning over thirty years, during which China has achieved unprecedented poverty reduction and growth,” said Klaus Rohland, World Bank Country Director for China. “As China’s challenges have changed, our strategy has evolved both substantively and geographically, with greater focus on knowledge, innovation, and the environment, and more emphasis on lagging central and western regions.”

The new CPS provides a framework for Bank Group engagement with China for the next four years. It is aligned with China’s 12th Five-Year Plan, and informed by the study, China 2030, prepared jointly by the World Bank and the Development Research Center of the State Council. To support China’s goal of a harmonious society, the Bank Group will focus on three main areas of engagement:

• Supporting greener growth, by helping China shift to a more sustainable energy path; enhancing urban environmental services; promoting low-carbon urban transport; promoting sustainable agriculture practices; piloting sustainable natural resource management approaches; demonstrating pollution management; and strengthening mechanisms for managing climate change.

• Promoting more inclusive development, by increasing access to quality health services and social protection; strengthening skills development programs, including for migrant workers; enhancing opportunities in rural areas and small towns; and improving transport connectivity for more balanced regional development.

• Advancing mutually beneficial relations with the world, by supporting China’s South-South cooperation and China’s role as a global stakeholder.

The Bank Group’s most valuable contribution in China remains its role in bringing and applying ideas, innovation, and knowledge. The new CPS emphasizes knowledge sharing and cooperation through advice and analytical products and through public and private sector investments at the provincial level that introduce and demonstrate new approaches. Non-lending services are expected to grow in importance over the CPS period, building on the recent China 2030 study. IBRD lending over the CPS period is expected to remain stable at about US$1.5 billion for 10-13 projects per year.

Investments by IFC, the member of the World Bank Group focused on private sector development in emerging and developing countries, are expected to remain strong at US$500-1,000 million for about 25 projects per year.

"IFC will continue to work with China's private sector to promote greener and inclusive growth under the framework set by the new CPS. In particular, we will deepen our partnerships with Chinese investors and businesses to make sustainable investments in other emerging markets,” said Hyun-Chan Cho, IFC’s Country Manager for China.

The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) retains significant room for further exposure in China and will use this available space to pursue projects aligned with its global strategy. The World Bank Group – IBRD, IFC, and MIGA – will continue to collaborate to maximize their impact.

The new CPS was prepared in close collaboration with the Government of China, and involved consultations with representatives of stakeholder groups, including central and local governments, the academia, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and development partners.

"The new CPS for China reflects our strong partnership with the World Bank and is well aligned with China's development agenda at its new stage of development,” said Zou Jiayi, Director General of the International Department, the Ministry of Finance of China.

The World Bank made its first loan to China in 1981. Since then, it has financed 349 development projects totaling more than US$54.41 billion. IFC has invested about US$6 billion in around 240 projects in China since 1985.