Tuesday, October 11th, 2005

“A valuable tool for development”

President Paul Wolfowitz tours the Tokyo Development Learning Center

From left: Colin Lonergan, TDLC Operations Manager; Paul Wolfowitz; Yukio Yoshimura, Vice President and Special Representative to Japan; Ryu Fukui, TDLC Partnership and Programs Manager

"There's no question that one of the most valuable tools for development is giving people information about things that work, and don't work. Hopefully we can do more with this technology than we've been able to do in the past" said World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz after touring the Tokyo Development Learning Center on October 11, 2005.

"The World Bank's mission is to help move that kind of information from one part of the world to another. Obviously, this technology allows you to do that without the enormous expense of transporting people".

Mr. Wolfowitz is visiting Japan for the first time as president, his first stop on a two week tour of Asia and Europe.

After meeting World Bank group staff members at the TDLC over coffee, Mr. Wolfowitz was given a demonstration of the center's hi-tech facilities, including a chromakey screen allowing TV style presentations. Marveling at the reach of the Global Development Learning Network connecting over 100 sites, he emphasized the importance of the power of inspiration and talked about a woman from a poor village that he had encountered on a visit to Pakistan.

"I asked her whether Pakistan could be successful at development, and she said, why not, the Japanese did it, the Chinese did it, why can't we do it? This ability to be inspired by the example of other people is important. If we can use technology like this to show people what works, I think it's half the job".