PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, Jan. 30--For the first time, World Bank and IMF representatives joined the debate at the World Social Forum anti-globalization summit, as many delegates underscored their frustrations with the conditions they must meet to get development aid, AFP reported.
And the future of free software to allow cheaper access to cyberspace was on the agenda, as several high profile individuals Saturday signed the Global Call to Action Against Poverty launched earlier in the week.
"It is important to have here (representatives) from the IMF and World Bank, but one has to know that they put conditions to their aid to countries," Novib/Oxfam Netherlands' Ted Van Rees said, at the Fifth World Social Forum. Thomas Deve, with Mwingo, a center for reflexion and development of the NGOs from Southern Africa, slammed International Monetary Fund and World Bank conditions imposed before credit is granted as "a disaster" encouraged by "UN advice to our governments."
What should be the deciding factor for these financial institutions is not a government economic policy but its transparent use of the funds it receives, he argued.
"Our people are very angry with you. We ask why do they accept the conditions you put," a Cameroonian participant warned the financial institutions' representatives. "Cameroon is not poor. We have oil, but still the population is poor. IMF and World Bank, please do something for development," he implored.
Asked about the need for the IMF and World Bank to change their modus operandi and an economic policy seen by critics as too severe, John Garrison, a member of the civil society team at the World Bank, said, "Our poverty agenda has already changed. In 1947, it was mainly the reconstruction of Europe, improving development with sound economic growth.
"Now we have a whole agenda, including access to education, ...(and) we allocated one billion US dollars to AIDS grants for Africa," Garrison said.
"We are putting the emphasis in policies of governments on social policies."
Simonetta Nardin, senior external affairs officer at the IMF, said "the issue of reforming financing of aid by the IMF and World Bank was already raised in Monterrey in 2001. It is true we are lagging behind, you (civil society) have more power than us, but do not underestimate your countries--your governments are not puppets of the IMF and World Bank.

TOKYO, Jan. 30--The Asian Bond Fund, aimed at investing in local currency-denominated bonds in the region, will bolster its basis by marketing an investment trust to the private sector, AFP quoted a Japanese report as saying on Sunday.
A group of central banks and monetary authorities in 11 economies, which support the fund, hopes to expand the bond markets and promote their liquidity by inviting private capital, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.
The group, called thee Executives' Meeting of East Asia-Pacific Central Banks (EMEAP), could announce the plan in May and start selling it in June, the business daily said.
The second phase of the Asian Bond Fund is expected to be established next month with $2 billion to be paid up by the Bank of Japan and other EMEAP partners.
The 11 economies--Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand--launched the first phase of the fund in 2003 to invest in US dollar-denominated bonds issued by sovereign and quasi-sovereign issuers.
The Asian Bond Fund initiative has been promoted in an effort to prevent a recurrence of the financial crises that erupted in the region in 1997 due in part to excessive reliance on the US dollar.
The new investment trust to lure private capital, tentatively called the Pan-Asian Bond Investment Trust, will be sold only in Asia in the initial stage, the daily said.
But participants might consider allowing US and European investors to purchase it in future, the report added.
The trust will invest in the local currency-denominated sovereign and government agency bonds of eight Asian economies--China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
The combined size of these bond markets is estimated at about $450 billion, the daily said.
In Japan, investors can purchase the new trust at investment trust companies, securities firms and banks that will undertake marketing on behalf of the Bank of Japan, it said.
The minimum trading unit could be set at several tens of thousands of yen to enable individuals to invest in the trust, it said. (10,000 yen is about 97 dollars at present.)

DAVOS, Switzerland,
Jan. 30--A group of key members of the World Trade Organization pledged Saturday to step up the pace of global trade talks in an attempt to reach agreement on a new round of liberalization in 2006, AFP reported.
"This was the kickstart to the political process necessary to put negotiations on the right track," said Swiss Economics Minister Joseph Deiss after the meeting of ministers from 25 countries or blocs including the European Union.
The informal meeting of a limited number of members of the 148-nation WTO on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum was aimed at mapping out the course for a full ministerial meeting at Hong Kong in December, Deiss, who chaired the meeting, told journalists.
Ministers must go to Hong Kong with "concrete progress" on the five areas where the stuttering round of talks are meant to cut down trade barriers, if they want to help developing countries gain a more lucrative place in global trade, officials said.
The areas include modalities for free trade in agriculture and industrial goods, and a "critical mass" of progress on services and trade facilitation, Deiss said in a statement summarising the outcome.
Draft texts of agreements must also include a "proper reflection of the development dimension", according to the statement. "These are in my view, necessary conditions to secure a timely and balanced final result in 2006," Deiss said.
Ministers in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos said afterwards that there had been broad agreement on the need for success in Hong Kong and to intensify the degree of political involvement over the coming months.
"There is a great deal of convergence on the need to make Hong Kong succeed," said Brazil's ambassador to the WTO, Luis Felipe de Seixas Correa.
"It was important that we start out 2005 with some momentum," US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said after the Davos meeting.

Pakistan's financial sector is witnessing robust growth in Islamic banking, which is emerging as a happy alternative for millions of faithful who regard conventional banking as impure, AFP reported.
The past 18 months have seen a steep increase in Islamic banking counters at key local and foreign banks.
Two fully-fledged Islamic banks--one local and one foreign-based--have opened 23 branches recently, while nine conventional banks including Standard Chartered and AG Zurich have 25 branches across the country.
Islamic finance is based on the main concept of outlawing fixed-interest returns and speculation, as well as forbidding investments in what the religion considers vices such as dealing in alcohol, pork or gambling.
Instead, Islamic banks make regular payments to account holders based on profits from approved investments. They also provide small-scale services to replace direct loans for customers to buy items such as cars, furniture and houses.
Pakistani governments have made halfhearted attempts since the 1960s to make the economy more Islamic. In 1984 military dictator Zia-ul Haq ordered banks to keep their books according to Sharia, or Islamic law, but the move flopped without a workable financial infrastructure or regulations.
Banking authorities continued to be resistant to change until they realized there was an untapped, steadily growing appetite amongst consumers.
In a sign of the changing times, the central State Bank of Pakistan recently allowed Citibank, ABN Amro and seven other banks to enter negotiations for Islamic banking licenses.
"Almost all the strong and major banks are negotiating with us," Pervez Said, director of the Islamic banking department at the state bank, told AFP.
"Islamic banking is here to stay," he said. "They are not coming out of some religious fervor but because there is a strong consumer push."
"There is tremendous market potential for Islamic banking in Pakistan, as surveys show there is a high commitment level that will push demand higher," said Hasan Aziz Bilgrami, chief executive of the Bank Islami Pakistan.
Bank Islami is poised to launch next month with more than half a dozen branches. It will be the third full-on Islamic bank here, with 25 percent equity from Britain's DCD Group, a property and real estate business which also has core shares in the Islamic Bank of Britain, he said.
"We expect to tap the potential of Pakistan's 90 percent-plus Muslim population, who have the highest commitment to their faith," Bilgrami said. Around 150 million people live in Pakistan.
"A reasonable expectation is that by 2010 about 20 percent of conventional banking might come into the ambit of Islamic banking," Said explained.
According to government statistics, assets of conventional banks stood at 2.3 trillion rupees or about $40 billion till 2004.
In order to deepen the capital and financial market at home and to make its presence felt in the international credit market, Pakistan this month launched roadshows for its first Islamic bonds, named Sukuk, which got a good response.
"There has been tremendous success during the roadshows in the Middle East, and HSBC and Citibank are said to have underwritten Islamic bonds worth 600 million dollars," said Fazal Ahmed, chief financial officer of the Islamic Investment Bank.
"Pakistan followed Malaysia and Bahrain--considered the role models of Islamic banking--while it formulated its regulations," he said.
"Now Pakistan has the best possible framework for Islamic banking that it can," Said told AFP.

ROME, Jan. 30--Italian taxpayers will be hit in the wallet with a wave of tax and tariff hikes as of Feb. 1 representing an average additional burden of 98 euros ($128) a month, three times the income tax cut promised by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government, AFP reported.
The tax rises were adopted by decree on Jan. 21 and have yet to be published in the official government gazette, Italian newspapers reported on Sunday.
Consumers' associations have got out their calculators and estimate the rises will add 98 euros to the monthly bill for the average household.
"Families are at the end of their tether with incomes which have lost more than 24 percent of their purchasing power in the past three years," they said.
"Against a cut in income tax equivalent to 20 euros a month, Italian families in 2005 will have to bear increases of 98 euros a month, which will leave 80 percent of the population 78 euros a month worse-off."
Berlusconi has embarked on income tax cuts worth 6.5 billion euros this year-- six billion for families and 500 million for companies--representing 0.4 per cent of gross domestic product.
"Around 16.6 million of taxpayers (40.7 percent of the population) will benefit from the cuts, with savings on average of 369 euros a year. For around 22.7 million taxpayers (59.3 percent) there will be no change in their contributions," according to an official economy and finance ministry document.
The latest hikes in tariffs and taxes decided by the government will affect all sectors, from purchasing or selling property to fishing and hunting permits and passport renewal.
They come on the heels of hefty increases in bank charges, electricity and gas bills as well as excise duty on alcohol and tobacco, the consumers' organizations noted.

Hong KongÕs much-vaunted laissez faire economy has been attacked as a collection of cartels controlled by a very wealthy business elite.

HONG KONG,
Jan. 30--Hong Kong prides itself on being the freest of the free economies, but analysts and increasingly vocal critics are beginning to question the claim, AFP reported.
Fuelled by growing suspicion that the government is colluding with big business, the city's much-vaunted laissez faire economy has been attacked as a collection of cartels controlled by a very wealthy business elite.
This month another survey, by the right-wing US-based Heritage Foundation, named the Chinese territory the world's freest economy. "I am pleased that the virtues we have been upholding to keep Hong Kong flourishing as a free market economy have once again been reaffirmed," trumpeted Financial Secretary Henry Tang of the January 4 report. He pointed to the free flows of capital, low taxes, minimal government intervention and Hong Kong's free port status with no tariffs as reasons to invest here.
"There is a misconception that Hong Kong has the freest economy in the world--it is called free because there are no laws to control the behavior of businesses," said Lin Ping, head of economics at Hong Kong's Lingnan University.
"Some companies are very powerful; there is no level playing field. New companies cannot come in and compete fairly, I do not see that as a free economy."
Tsang Shu-ki, economics professor at Hong Kong Baptist University agrees. "Hong Kong is an open economy, a free trade city, and it has no capital control," Tsang said. "But that doesn't mean this economy does not have what we are worried about, and that is anti-competitive behavior."
Of most concern is the absence of a competition policy, something the government has long resisted, saying it would confuse business people.
"Hong Kong is probably the only advanced economy in the world that does not have a comprehensive competition law," said Lin.
However, the official Consumer Council watchdog regularly outlines instances where consumers have suffered as a result of business monopolies and cartels.
European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and the International Monetary Fund have long called for a competition law here.
The World Trade Organization also warned in a 2002 report "the entrenchment of a few dominant conglomerates in the domestic market could constitute an obstacle to greater competition from domestic and foreign firms".