World Bank chief asks Korea to help fight Ebola

President Park Geun-hye walks into a conference room for an education symposium with World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, second from right, and Education Minister Hwang Woo-yea, right, at the Coex Intercontinental Hotel, southern Seoul, Tuesday. / Yonhap

By Choi Kyong-ae

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim asked Korea to send additional health workers to Ebola-hit countries, Tuesday, saying its economy was robust enough to support the ongoing anti-epidemic efforts.

“Many countries in Asia who could help simply are not ― especially when it comes to sending health workers. I call on leaders across Asia to send their trained health professional teams to help stop Ebola at its source,” Kim said in a press conference held in Seoul.

Korea plans to send about 20 military and civilian medical workers to West Africa in the coming weeks to help contain the outbreak and pledged to contribute $5.6 million to the anti-Ebola campaign, the bank’s chief said.

Kim urged Asia to come forward to defeat the deadly virus as it has “a wealth of medical personnel who could be among the heroes needed now on the frontlines. On Tuesday, 11 months into the Ebola crisis, only 30 medical teams from around the world have been sent to the three West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.”

When it comes to financial support, he said many billions of dollars are immediately needed to keep Ebola from spreading across borders given that a single case of Ebola in the U.S. is already having an impact on airlines, tourism and other businesses.

As of Oct. 11, the death toll from the Ebola outbreak topped 4,000 from 8,000 reported cases. Most of the cases were reported in the three African countries, according to the World Health Organization.

Kim pointed out that focusing only on border control is not the right response. “The world needs to put the fire out because if it doesn’t, Ebola could spread to any country, including those here in Asia,” he said.

By stressing that developing countries in Asia will be responsible for about 40 percent of all the growth next year, Kim called on Asian economies to send additional health workers to Ebola-hit countries. He expected East Asia to account for over a third of world trade next year, so the outlook is the strongest for East Asia.

Many developing countries are worried about the tapering of quantitative easing measures in the U.S. but the U.S. Federal Reserve had given a lot of warnings that it would bring down the bond-buying program in October, he said.

“The Korean economy will grow at around 4 percent this year. So compared to other OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, this is very healthy and robust growth,” said Kim. Last month, the Bank of Korea lowered the country’s annual growth to 3.5 percent for the year from the previous 3.8 percent.

As for Japan’s accelerating bond purchase programs, he said the move was aimed at boosting its economy amid deflation worries. Japan’s central bank and its state pension fund said last week they would inject trillions of yen into the sputtering economy.