With reference to the letter entitled 'Try Cuba's way? No thanks' (May 14), the following excerpts from the Press Conference of the World Bank's Development Committee on April 30, 2001, may be of interest.

I doubt anyone could accuse the interviewee, World Bank president James Wolfensohn, of any bias towards Cuba, which makes these remarks doubly interesting.

Question: "Two questions for Mr Wolfensohn. For one, okay, I think I'll ask the one on the World Economic Outlook that was released a few days ago, statistics that the Bank produced.

"One thing that struck me was that out of all the countries, there was one particular country that shone in all indicators: Education, health, social spending, and that country happens to be Cuba, and it's the only country that does not take advice from the World Bank and IMF.

"These are statistics that the Bank has put out. Perhaps they are cooked statistics; I don't know. Do you stand by those statistics, and if so, what is the reason for Cuba being so outstanding?"

Wolfensohn: "Well, we don't cook the statistics, and we put them out so that you can read them. I think Cuba has done - and everybody would acknowledge - a great job on education and health.

"And if you judge the country by education and health, they have done a terrific job. So I have no hesitation in acknowledging that they've done a good job, and it doesn't embarrass me to do it.

"It wasn't with our advice, but it wasn't without our advice either. I mean, we just have nothing to do with them in the present sense, and they should be congratulated on what they have done."

Editor's note: The writer has written on May 16 to clarify that he was referring to the letter below, and not 'Malaysia must emulate Cuba' (May 12) as what we had put earlier.