US-backed candidate to head World Bank
The result was a foregone conclusion despite two other candidates with stronger financial credentials.
In the most controversial contest yet for the post, Korean physician Jim Yong Kim will be the new president of the World Bank.
Dr Kim was the American nominee and because of that was always a favourite to replace Robert Zoellick for a five-year term beginning on July 1.
The bank’s board choses its head by consensus but on a weighted basis, which gives the US and Europe the major say.
Dr Kim, 52, now an American resident who is president of the Dartmouth business school, was considered the weakest of three candidates based on his lack of financial and economic experience.
His reputation is based on his pioneering role in treating HIV/Aids and reducing the impact of tuberculosis in the Third World.
He faced a strong challenge from Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and a former Colombian finance minister, Jose Antonio Ocampi. Both also had World Bank experience.
The bank hailed the selection process as competitive, saying that the challenge posed by Mrs Okonjo-Iweala, as well as by would benefit the institution in the long-run.
The three candidacies "enriched the discussion of the role of the president and of the World Bank Group's future direction," it said.
By convention, the US has always held the top job at the World Bank since it was founded in 1944.
The top job of its sister organisation, the International Monetary Fund, has also always gone to a European but there has been much pressure from emerging economies to open the processes of both organisations to competition.
Nevil Gibson
Tue, 17 Apr 2012
Tue, 17 Apr 2012
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US-backed candidate to head World Bank
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