WB inaugurates $50b trade finance for dev countries

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LAGOS, April 4 (Xinhua): The World Bank has inaugurated a new global initiative aimed at bringing together governments, development finance institutions and banks to support trade in developing markets, reported the News Agency of Nigeria yesterday.
The initiative with a targeted initial commitment of 5 billion US dollars will be sourced from the public sector and it will support up to 50 billion dollars of trade.
The World Bank in a statement said the Global Trade Liquidity Program would begin in May.
According to the organization, the bailout is to address the shortage of trade finance resulting from the current global financial crisis, adding that the seed funds being sourced from international finance and development institutions, governments and banks would be managed by global and regional banks.
The World Bank listed the beneficiaries to include importers and exporters in developing countries. Robert B. Zoellick, the World Bank President, lauded what he called the tremendous cooperation between public and private sector institutions that facilitated the Global Trade Liquidity Program.
"I welcome G20 support for this timely and targeted solution that will provide trade finance to support businesses across developing markets,' he said.
According to reports of the News Agency Nigeria, the program has so far received one billion U.S dollars commitment from the International Finance Corporation (IFC).