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Kim vows scientist’s approach at World Bank
WASHINGTON - Jim Yong Kim, the Korean-American physician nominated by Washington to lead the World Bank, said Wednesday his science training will help him make the Bank more responsive to the needs of developing countries.
In a written commentary released by the US Treasury as he embarked on a global tour to sell his candidacy, Kim said the Bank needs to be “more inclusive” and listen more to poor countries’ own ideas about how to solve their problems.
“A more open World Bank must recognize it does not have all the answers and listen closely to its clients and stakeholders,” he said.
“I have worked in villages where fewer than one in 10 adults could read or write, where preventable diseases cut lives short and where lack of infrastructure and capital held back entrepreneurs.”
“In all those villages, the local people knew where improvement was needed.”
As president of the Bank, he said, “My focus will be to ensure that it provides a rapid, effective response to their needs.
“I will come with an open mind and apply my medical and social-science training to take an evidence-based approach.”
Kim, the president of Dartmouth College and best known for his AIDS treatment program at the World Health Organization, was proposed last week by US President Barack Obama to be the next president of the World Bank.
While the US pick has always gotten the powerful position in the past, Kim faces an unprecedented challenge from other candidates, respected economists Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria and Jose Antonio Ocampo of Colombia.
Kim was to begin a trip this week to woo support around the world, with stops planned in Addis Ababa, Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, New Delhi, Brasilia and Mexico City — all important players in the Bank.
“My message is simple: an era of extraordinary opportunity requires an extraordinary global institution,” he wrote.
“I want to hear from developing countries, as well as those that provide a big share of the resources to development, about how we can together build a more inclusive, responsive and open World Bank.”
The Bank’s executive directors plan to interview the three candidates over April 9-11, according to Ocampo, with an eye toward a decision by the Bank’s April 20-22 Spring Meeting in Washington.
The new president will succeed outgoing US diplomat Robert Zoellick, who will leave at the end of June as his five-year term expires.
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