Statement by World Bank Group
President Jim Yong Kim at the
Syria Conference
February 4, 2016

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim

Syria Conference

London, United Kingdom

As Prepared for Delivery

I’d like to thank our host, the UK government, and the co-organizers Kuwait,
Germany, Norway, and the United Nations, for bringing us here today.

There is no shortage of reminders of the full cost of what is happening in Syria
today. So many have died from the conflict, and millions of those who have
survived have had their lives torn apart. More than 2 million refugees from
Syria are now in the neighboring countries of Jordan and Lebanon. These two
nations have done the world a huge service in their generous help to Syrians,
despite causing great sacrifice for their people and their economies.

In fact, we estimate this generosity has cost about $2.7 billion dollars a year in
Jordan and $1.6 billion dollars a year in Lebanon. The two countries have
been the main financiers to support the refugees, which has led to a rapid
increase in their indebtedness. Jordan’s debt to GDP ratio is now 91 percent,
and Lebanon’s is 138 percent. This is not sustainable.

These countries argue – and we agree – that the best solution is to find as
much financing as possible through grants. For the remainder, we are
working with the Islamic Development Bank and the United Nations to design
concessional financing instruments to support the efforts of both Lebanon and
Jordan.

Today, I’d like to announce that our Board of Directors is working with World
Bank Group management on an extraordinary measure to provide $200
million dollars in direct concessional financing to create jobs and increase
access to education in Lebanon and Jordan. Separately, through the
development of a MENA Financing facility, we are launching with the Islamic
Development Bank and the United Nations an initiative that aims to raise $1
billion dollars of grants from donors. These grants will leverage between $3
and $4 billion dollars of concessional finance for the two countries. In
addition, we are pursuing guarantees to open up space on development
banks’ balance sheets and we will also issue bonds, which will provide
additional financing for recovery and reconstruction programs in the region.

These new financing initiatives, combined with our existing programs, are
expected to total about $20 billion dollars in the next five years – which is
roughly triple our investment in the region from the previous five years. In
addition to our Middle East response, we are also supporting Turkey in
addressing the influx of Syrian refugees into its borders.

In short, we are doing everything we can to find innovative ways to help these
countries. One prominent example is that Prime Minister David Cameron, His
Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan and I began discussing, in September, how
best to create jobs for both Jordanians and Syrian refugees. We are exploring
the creation of special economic zones and encouraging investments in
municipal projects and labor intensive work. We must create mutual benefit for
the host communities as well as the refugees.

Development agencies and humanitarian organizations often have worked in
the past as completely separate entities. But we know that a refugee can
remain a refugee for years, even decades, and we must find ways to bring
knowledge from development organizations such as the World Bank Group to
improve the lives of refugees soon after they arrive in a host country – not
years later.

We must all respond to what Martin Luther King called “the fierce urgency of
the now.� We’re determined that our resources will be put to immediate and
long-lasting use – to create jobs, to educate children, and to provide economic
opportunities for both Syrian refugees as well as their generous hosts in
Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

It’s imperative that we rise to the challenge of the humanitarian crisis at hand,
and that we do so in a way that supports development for generations to
come. Thank you very much.