Source: Today's Zaman

By Jeffrey Sachs, Professor of economics and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University

The China Daily recently ran a front-page story recounting how Paul Wolfowitz used threats and vulgarities to pressure senior World Bank staff.

The newspaper noted that Wolfowitz sounded like a character out of the mafia television show The Sopranos. At the same time, while the Wolfowitz scandal unfolded, China was playing host to the Africa Development Bank (ADB), which held its board meeting in Shanghai. This is a vivid metaphor for today's world: while the World Bank is caught up in corruption and controversy, China skillfully raises its geopolitical profile in the developing world. China's rising power is, of course, based heavily on its remarkable economic success. The ADB meeting took place in the Pudong District, Shanghai's most remarkable development site. From largely unused land a generation ago, Pudong has become a booming center of skyscrapers, luxury hotels, parks, industry, and vast stretches of apartment buildings. Shanghai's overall economy is currently growing at around 13 percent per year, thus doubling in size every five or six years. Everywhere there are startups, innovations and young entrepreneurs hungry for profits.

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Posted by pichu at May 25, 2007 11:06 AM