Jim Yong Kim steps down as President of World Bank

International Desk: World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim has made the surprise announcement that he is stepping down after six years in the post.

His resignation will take effect from 1 February.

Mr Kim, 59, was not due to leave until 2022, after he was re-elected for a second five-year term in 2017.

He will "join a firm and focus on increasing infrastructure investments in developing countries", the World Bank said.

In a statement, Mr Kim said: "It has been a great honour to serve as President of this remarkable institution, full of passionate individuals dedicated to the mission of ending extreme poverty in our lifetime".

No reason was given for his unexpected resignation.

Kristalina Georgieva, the World Bank's chief executive officer, will assume the role of interim president.

So he hasn't actually gone yet, but we can still start thinking about who will take over. I am not going to speculate about particular candidates so much as about one big international political sore that will probably flare up again. Will it once again be a United States nominee that gets the job as it always has been?

It goes back to an understanding when the Bank was created in the 1940s, after the Second World War: an American would run the World Bank; a European would be in charge of the International Monetary Fund. That's the way it has always been. It's an arrangement that many regard as anachronistic. The two institutions now have more formalised selection procedures, and the recent preferred European and US candidates have faced challenges. Jim Yong Kim - a Korean American nominated by the Obama Administration - was up against a Colombian and a Nigerian when he was first appointed.

So far, the post-war understanding has prevailed. Will the US under President Trump be open to the idea of ending that arrangement? It would be quite a surprise.

Source: BBC


risingbd/Jan 8, 2019/Mukul