Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen.

A warm welcome to you all !

The Norwegian Government is honoured to host the 4th Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics in Europe.

The World Bank has become an important force for development. Combating poverty and creating development has moved up to the top of the Bank’s agenda.

Norway has welcomed this. We have a very close and good dialogue with the Bank. It is a dialogue marked - I believe - by shared goals, by constructive criticism, and good results.

The World Bank is also an important knowledge bank. It brings together leading researchers and analysts from all over the world.

Your views and observations inform and guide the policies of the World Bank, and those of the development community at large. In every development institution there is space for improvement. That goes for the World Bank too.

We need informed debate and criticism. This is how we keep our edge and remain relevant.

That is why it is a special pleasure for me to welcome so many development researchers and experts to Oslo. We are proud to host an important conference devoted to combating poverty and improving global development policies.

Poverty is the most fundamental challenge of our time. We cannot accept that more than one billion people live and die in misery in a world of unprecedented wealth.

The Millennium Development Goals, with poverty reduction as the overarching priority, have given us clear and common targets against which to measure development progress.

We need to increase our efforts in several areas. A major responsibility must be assumed by the developing countries themselves. But the rich countries should do more, both in terms of ODA and otherwise.

For a start, we must increase the effectiveness of our assistance.

The Monterrey Conference, which I had the pleasure to attend, recognised the importance of closer coordination between the UN, the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO and others.

Monterrey also reached out to the private sector and to civil society, both essential partners in getting under way a new deal for development.

Norway will continue to push for closer donor coordination, which must also include bilateral channels. On the donor side, our policies are increasingly coordinated. But we will not succeed unless the administrative burden on the developing countries is lessened and country ownership strengthened.

President Wolfensohn’s “Comprehensive Development Framework” marks an important shift in the Bank’s approach to development and poverty reduction.

It makes it clear that each and every country must take full charge of its own development strategy. External assistance will only be effective with leadership at the national level. Donors can no longer pursue their own pet projects and priorities.

This approach recognises the importance of good governance and strong governmental institutions.

It does not counter-pose government and market. It sees effective government as a basis for a well functioning private sector and a dynamic market economy. This is essential.

My government earlier this year launched a new strategy for development assistance, termed “An Action Plan for Combating Poverty”.

We base our plan on three pillars:

First, development is a right. Development must be based on the respect for human rights.

Second, our policies must be coherent. ODA is only one part of our development policy. Trade, investments and sectoral policies must also be pro-poor. We demand coherent policies from our partners. We owe it to them to show the same coherence ourselves.

Third, as donors we must be willing to be coordinated by our partners in the South. We must align our assistance around their development strategies and priorities.

We look forward to hearing your views on our Action Plan during the course of this conference.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Norwegian development assistance. This conference is part of a series of events to commemorate the anniversary.

50 years have passed since Norway initiated public development co-operation:

Much has been achieved, even more remains to be done. We are as humble and as hopeful as ever.

Millions have pulled themselves out of the poverty trap. Yet the gap between rich and poor has widened.

Unimaginable progress has been made in medicine. Yet the HIV/AIDS pandemic alone threatens to set back progress in many of the poorest countries. Some three million children die each year from preventable diseases.

We must also adapt development assistance to changing circumstances.

Globalisation brings challenges and opportunities.

We can steer it, but we cannot stop it.

We must help poor countries reap the benefits of globalisation.

And we must work together on global challenges, such as climate control.

A strong multilateral system is necessary to make globalisation work for everybody.

Globalisation has also led to an increased focus on governance and participation.

We welcome this.

This year’s World Development Report emphasises the importance of well-functioning institutions at all levels.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Norway will continue its active partnership with the World Bank.

We will also continue to have a broad and active national debate on the role of the Bank, which must include academia, NGOs and interest groups.

We will of course also include the developing countries in our debates.

The Bank itself has demonstrated that it can both listen and learn from NGOs and civil society.

One prominent example is in the area of debt relief. The adoption of the HIPC debt relief initiative for highly indebted poor countries, owes a lot to the efforts of NGOs.

The Norwegian Government and the World Bank invited several activist groups to participate in this conference.

They were given a chance to make themselves heard and to contribute to our discussions.

Unfortunately, some groups chose to stand outside and to forsake this opportunity to challenge and to be challenged.

Several of you will hopefully attend the debate that the University of Oslo hosts in cooperation with ATTAC tomorrow evening. It is entitled “The World Bank: Revolution, Reform or Cosmetic Change?”

On Wednesday afternoon, the Bishop of Oslo has invited members of the NGO community, the World Bank and others to a dialogue meeting to discuss different views on the role and politics of the World Bank.

As we gather in Oslo, the best soccer players in the world are gathered in South Korea and Japan.

Technology enables us all to follow these events as they happen – that is, if you have subscribed to the right channel. This is also part of globalisation.

The soccer players are fortunate to play on a level field, by the same rules, with referees to ensure their evenhanded application.

The development field is far less level.

The rules are less clear, and more unevenly applied.

Some refuse to play at fields not of their liking.

The poor are mostly excluded from every field.

There are no generally recognized referees.

This illustrates the challenge the poor face, and this is what you are here to address.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We stand together in our wish to eradicate poverty and to create a more just and sustainable world.

Our long-term goals and ambitions are the same, whether we represent governments or non-governmental institutions.

Where we differ is on the means to reach our goals.

We owe it to each other to join forces to ensure that we find the most optimal set of tools to reach our common goals.

I wish you fruitful and productive deliberations, and hereby declare the 4th Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics in Europe opened.

Thank you.