Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

A new report from the World Bank and IFC finds that cities across Colombia continue to implement regulatory business reforms with the large business cities making the biggest strides. Released Doing Business in Colombia 2013 finds that Manizales and Ibagué once again top the rankings thanks to continuous improvements that make it easier to do business.

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved a US$4.25 million additional emergency recovery grant from the Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) to boost Burundi’s support for former combatants returning to their communities, with a particular focus on women, children, and severely disabled ex-combatants.

The debates were held in an extraordinary meeting of the EP Committee on Foreign Affairs, also discussing the current situation in Egypt and Syria.

China signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters at a ceremony at the OECD. All G20 countries have now fulfilled the commitment they made at the Cannes G20 Summit to sign the Convention and move towards automatic exchange of information as the new, global standard.

Philippe H. Le Houérou, new Vice President of World Bank Group’s South Asia Region made an introductory visit to Pakistan from August 21 to 24, 2013. He was accompanied during this trip by Isabel M. Guerrero, the outgoing Vice President.

Climate change combined with rapid population increases, economic growth and land subsidence could lead to a more than 9-fold increase in the global risk of floods in large port cities between now and 2050.

The World Bank Group, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and Tonga Cable Corporation (TCC), media and others joined the Government of the Kingdom of Tonga at a ceremony at the Tonga Cable Limited building to celebrate the arrival of high speed internet in Tonga.

125 banking professionals from 31 countries are currently participating in a weeklong technical conference titled ‘Investing in Agriculture Profitably’. This conference is managed by the World Bank through AgriFin and supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with Hatton National Bank as the local host.