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management. We endorse the Bank's policies on lending to private enterprises without government guarantee, its attention to the role of women in development, and its increasing concern with environmental issues and technical assistance operations.
We note that a decision has yet to be reached on a second time-zone office in Europe. We continue to believe that this would be advantageous to the Bank, both from an administrative and financial point of view. It will come as no surprise that we should again like to note that London, as the prime international financial centre, is the obvious location.
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We do not think that this question should be linked to establishing other new offices in the Asian-Pacific regions, which would have entirely different functions. too early to evaluate whether the Bangladesh and South Pacific offices are fully effective, but we look forward with considerable interest to management reports on that.
We continue to support the work of the Budget Review Committee. We applaud the President's continuing efforts to run a tight ship and to restrict administrative expenditures. As a medium term objective, the growth in the Bank's administrative budget should be held to zero in real terms. Any increases in areas of high priority should be offset so far as possible by savings in areas of lower priority. We therefore consider that the changing needs of the Bank should be met by reorganization and rationalization of existing staff complements. The Bank should be able to cope with an increased emphasis on proper project administration and implementation, and any increase in lending, through further streamlining of operational policies and procedures.
As a result of the advent of the new members to the Bank, decisions will have to be taken soon on the size and composition of the Board of Directors. Clearly China should have representation on the Board at Executive Director level. However, the decision on the overall size of the Board must take account of the need to maintain tight control of administrative costs which I have mentioned, and the need to maintain the role of the non-regional members.
In view of the concern which has been voiced by staff in recent months, we accept that there is an urgent need for the management and Board to review the criteria for compensation and benefits of professional and supporting staff. However, my Government continues to believe that pay restraint remains necessary. Even though there was no salary increase last year, we remain of the view that professional staff are appropriately rewarded.