WORLD BANK CHIEF URGES MORE JAPANESE INVESTMENT World Bank President Barber Conable called on Japan to boost investment in developing nations, for its own sake as well as that of the world economy. "Japan has the means to make a major contribution to development in the Third World," he told about 500 Japanese businessmen and academics. "I would be pleased with additional support." With 25 pct of the world's total banking assets, Japan could do more to help assist indebted Third World countries develop roads, bridges and other infrastructure, he said. Conable said additional commercial bank investment would also be to Japan's advantage. It would profit from rechannelling its huge trade surplus into Third World economies -- notably those in South America, China and India -- that are likely to expand faster than those in the developed world, he said. Japan is now the second largest shareholder in the Bank's concessionary lending affiliate, the International Development Association (IDA). It has also agreed recently to expand its contribution to another affiliate, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), Conable noted. Conable said the World Bank was expanding its structural adjustment loans, designed to encourage developing countries to open their economies more to free competition and trade. "Adjustment loans could rise to 30 pct (of total World Bank loans) in the near future, though maybe not this year," Conable told Reuters after his speech. Such loans currently account for slightly over 20 pct.