Reported by BBC news, on 23th March, President Obama nominated Jim Yong Kim as the candidate of the next president of the World Bank.
This nomination is obviously surprising because he was not mentioned in any analysis about possible candidates in the past weeks. Jim Yong Kim, a Korean American, was born in Seoul. He majored in medical, and he's an expert on health in developing countries. He was a co-founded Partner in Health, providing health programmes for the poor people, also a student at Harvard University. He is now the president of Dartmouth College, one of the United States’ most prestigious academic institutions. As a former official at the World Health Organization, which is a very important area of World Bank, Dr. Kim is no wonder a fitting candidate, even though also surprising.
This development expert seems to be a nice fit and he indeed has got much praise from people in different areas. But at the same time, he still has two other strong competitors: Mrs Okonjo-Iweala, the Nigerian finance minister and a former high level executive at the World Bank, nominated by three African countries - Angola, Nigeria and South Africa; and Jose Antonio Ocampo, the former finance minister of Colombia and currently an academic at Columbia University. Both of these two candidates have rich experience in developing countries and development issues.
Even though the three candidates seem to have a very balanced capacity and experiences, the nomination of Dr. Jo Yong Kim is actually a formality. Like what we have learned in class, the election of the president of World Bank is bases on the organization’s board, which is made up of 25 representatives of the member countries. The votes are weighted by financial contribution. The US has almost 16% of the vote. Although European Union countries have a bigger 29%, but “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”, it is almost for sure that the European Union will respect the opinion of the United States. It is clearly that the election will only follow the wish of the United States.
1 comment:
Which one would you prefer? one with no professional experience in finance and economic, or one with experience in the field. I don't think the economy function like a human body, and this is like saying let the economist do the surgery, and the doctor make the policies.
Post a Comment