Istanbul, January 28, 2007—World Bank Group President Paul Wolfowitz addressed the press today after his meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Reycep Tayyip Erdogan and State Minister for the Economy Ali Babacan . Wolfowitz’s statement follows: “We had extremely good meetings with the Prime Minister and with State Minister Ali Babacan. I think I might almost summarize, picking up on what the Minister said, the first time I came to Turkey was December 1976, it is 30 years later and about the only thing that’s really the same is it’s still snowing. The economic progress is really striking and particularly in the last 5 or 6 years since the financial crisis of 2001. I was delighted when I took on this job as head of the World Bank to learn that Turkey is one of the most important partners of the World Bank and that the relationship between our institution and your country is so strong. I think the value of the cooperation is not only measured in terms of the number of dollars, but as the Minister indicated, also in the kinds of problem-solving and expertise that we can bring to problems by working together. But also I believe that, just as I think we are helping Turkey learn from the experience of other countries, we can help other countries learn from the experience of Turkey and everyone benefits from that. Of course the most important things is that the people who have benefited the most from Turkey’s development are the people of Turkey itself. But already this whole region benefits from Turkey’s progress. I’m convinced and my colleagues in the World Bank are convinced that Turkish membership in the European Union will not only enrich Turkey but it will enrich Europe as well. And I’ll just conclude by noting that the Prime Minister is going to Addis Ababa to attend the meeting of the African Union. We talked about Africa, and I very much look forward to a growing Turkish role in helping some of the poor developing countries to benefit both from Turkey’s experience but also from Turkey’s entrepreneurial and investment skills. Thank you very much.” -- | 
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