Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank

The growth, even it is a key global economic factor, is much more the industrial countries concern than the least developed ones. Due to the global financial crisis, I think international organizations such as the World Bank should definitely focus their current funding efforts on tackling the corruption issues in developping, fragile and conflict-affected countries. Indeed, I have just been reading an interesting article from your RFI colleagues about the « Corruption Perceptions Index 2010 » from Transparency International. Seeing Afghanistan, Iraq, or Somali ranked as the most perceived corrupted countries for example, it seems obvious the current tensions in the Middle-East or North Africa are exacerbated by the geoeconomic gap, feeding the natives or local populations bitterness and anger, which the corruption by widening those countries wealth gap, biasing business or diverting aids is at the root. I don't know if the global crisis has increased that plague, nevertheless from my point of view, fighting corruption is one of the first steps towards the developing countries economic start out. Still, I'm aknowledging it is always easier to solve such complex and multi-factor issues with a pen than being in the Robert Zoellick seat or other economic leaders. More generally, I would like to thank you for the quality of your interview Raphael and will continue to watch regularly your magazine.

Roland,
France