Thank you.
Thanks for coming.
I think you'll agree that institutions are important because they demonstrate that the culture and geography aren't barriers to growth or poverty reduction. Ms. Sims talked about looking for solutions to reduce poverty, which is certainly an admirable goal and the whole point of development. Yet at the same time it seems to dismiss the importance of institutions, which I think are everything when it comes to development, because without them it is very difficult to develop, and perhaps impossible.
I want you to take a step back, get out of the nitty gritty and what's happening on the ground today, and talk about Africa versus Asia. Go back 50 or 60 years and show the development of institutions in these areas. At that time GDP per capita in some Asian countries was lower than in Africa. Through the building of institutions they grew over time to where we see them today. We see parts of Asia that have living standards on par with western countries. Africa is falling further and further behind, not developing, and not growing.
I think this is important, because when we face scarce resources and budgetary pressures and have to put aid dollars in certain countries, it is best to focus on incentives to get countries to develop institutions that will allow them to realize growth so they are less dependent on aid dollars and are pulled out of poverty.