（Tsinghua News Center） Mr. James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank Group came to Tsinghua on the sunny morning of May 29. His speech was delivered in the Reception Hall of the Main Building as usual, but the audience was unusual in the way that students from three universities, namely, Tsinghua University, Ningxia University in northwestern Ningxia Province and Chongqing Technology and Business University in southwestern Chongqing City, were present via video conference.
Mr. Wolfensohn first made an introduction about the Global Conference on Scaling Up Poverty Reduction closed in Shanghai two days ago, and he considered this trip to China as “carrying the mission of discussing the questions of poverty and trying to dealing in scale and in size with poverty”. He praised China for the rapid economic development as well as its achievement in the worldwide battle against poverty. However, as he stressed “we bring together more than 1,000 people from more than 60 countries not just to see what we have accomplished, rather, we are concerned with the seriousness of the problem, and look into its future development in the next 10 or 20 years.” This amicable senior impressed the young students with his frankness. He then talked about the role of China in the world of change, which stated that China should be a leader or the leader of the developing world”. As for the responsibility of the young students, he remarked: “you are not the future, and you are the now. It’s the change of young leadership”, while he tried to “build bridges between my generation and your generation.” His insightful thoughts in the grand discussion about the human development gave an exact definition of the social responsibility to the young students.
After that, he answered questions from students of three universities, and again showed his deep concern with the poverty problem and appealed to giving more chances instead of charity to the poor people.
Prof. Gong Ke, vice-president of Tsinghua University, hosted the speech, and presidents from Ningxia University and Chongqing Technology and Business University also extended their thanks to Mr. Wolfensohn’s wonderful speech.
Reported by Che Jing
Photoed by Guo Haijun
