UNCERTAINTY from trade tensions and slowing global growth is increasing the need for developing countries to pursue reforms that make them more attractive to private investment, World Bank President David Malpass said Friday.

Malpass, who is attending the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, said in an interview that he will urge countries to take bolder steps to improve their business climates to allow private firms to compete better with state-owned companies and generate more profitable growth, innovation and jobs.

The World Bank in its annual Global Economic Prospects report earlier this month forecast that slowing trade and investment flows would cut global growth this year to 2.6 percent, down 0.3 percentage points from previous forecasts.

The International Monetary Fund has forecast a similar slowdown, driven primarily by increased tariffs.

“My message to people at the G20 is the idea that development is critical in this environment and urgent. It’s important that policy changes be considered that will create more potential for private-sector growth,” Malpass said in a telephone interview from Osaka.

Malpass, who took over as World Bank president in April after two years in the Trump administration as the U.S. Treasury’s top diplomat, said he is also focused on countries’ internal development and ways to grow internal commerce between cities and regions.

The bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corp., is doing a deep diagnostics dive into obstacles to private sector firms in various countries on issues like customs facilitation, stronger bankruptcy regimes and legal changes to bring more women into workforces.

(SD-Agencies)