Japan should remain committed to lifting millions of people around the world out of poverty and not be shortsighted about foreign aid even though it is under budget constraints, a top executive of the World Bank said.
"Given the size of the Japanese economy, the outside world does not understand budget constraints," Praful Patel, the World Bank's vice president for South Asia, said in an interview this week.
As part of efforts to trim spending to reduce the burden on the debt-ridden state finances, Japan has slashed its official development assistance for the eighth straight year through fiscal 2007.