'Third World' Caoncepts No Longer Relevant - Zoellick

In a speech setting the stage for World Bank and IMF meetings in Washington this week, where emerging economies will play a bigger role, Zoellick cautioned against falling back into patterns of self-interest. He said economic progress in developing countries had profound implications for global cooperation, multilateralism and the work of institutions such as the World Bank.

"Economic and political tectonic plates are shifting," Zoellick told an audience at the Woodrow Wilson Center. "We can shift with them, or we can continue to see a new world through the prism of the old. The meetings next week are expected to approve the first capital increase for the World Bank in 20 years. While rich industrial countries have been the biggest contributors to the World Bank and long dictated how the money is spent, emerging market countries will have a bigger role.