Sydkoreansk-født sundhedsekspert skal lede klodens største giver af udviklingsbistand – udmelding fra præsident Obama efter pres fra store u-lande, der vil vriste posten ud af amerikansk kontrol.
President Barack Obama has nominated South Korean-born US academic Jim Yong Kim (52) to be the next president of the World Bank, BBC online reports Friday.
The nomination of the development expert is a surprise as he was not mentioned as a contender over the past weeks.
A US citizen has led the Bank since it was founded, but developing nations say it is time for change. Amidst this growing pressure, Obama stressed Dr Kim’s international experience.
“It is time for a development professional to lead the world’s largest development agency,” he said.
Dr Kim is a leading figure in global health. As well as his work at the WHO, he co-founded the health organisation Partners in Health in 1987. Born in Seoul, he moved with his family to the US at the age of five.
“This is one of the most critical institutions fighting poverty and providing assistance to developing countries in the world today,” Dr Kim said.
Selecting the World Bank president is a task for the organisation’s board, which is made up of 25 representatives of the member countries.
Some of them have their own seats – the US and UK, for example. Others are grouped into constituencies. Votes in the World Bank – and in the IMF too – are weighted by financial contribution.
The US alone has nearly 16 per cent of the vote. EU countries have a further 29 per cent. They are likely to support a US-nominated candidate, in order to preserve the long-standing informal deal which has seen the World Bank run by an American and the IMF by a European – currently France’s Christine Lagarde.
Paul Farmer, a friend of Dr Kim’s and the chair of the Department of Global Health at Harvard University, praised the nomination.
“I can think of no one more able to help families, communities, and entire nations break out of poverty, which is the stated goal of the World Bank,” he said.
“He has worked in rural villages and squatter settlements just as he has worked in the halls of power and privilege,” noted he.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were created at the conference at Bretton Woods in 1944 as a means to regulate trade between nations in the aftermath of the Great Depression and World War II.
The current president, Robert Zoellick, is to step down when his five-year term comes to an end on 30 June, BBC notes.
