World Bank chief-nominee to tour 7 nations

Jim Young Kim

Korean-born Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim, who has recently been nominated by U.S. President Barack Obama to lead the World Bank, will soon visit Korea, according to the U.S. Treasury Department Tuesday.

The visit is part of an 11-day global tour to win over skeptics in Africa, Asia and Latin America to his becoming the head of the bank. The details of his itinerary were not immediately available but he is expected to meet senior government officials in various countries.

He will visit Addis Ababa, Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, New Delhi, Brasilia and Mexico City, all important players in the bank, through April 9.

“Dr. Kim will meet with heads of state, finance ministers, and other stakeholders to solicit their priorities for the World Bank over the coming years,” the department was quoted as saying in a statement.

It is expected that he will be welcomed by people here, who hope to have a Korean-born individual head an international organization ― with some comparing him to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Kim, a U.S. national who was born in Seoul and raised in Iowa, is a physician by training and an influential figure in the global health world. After serving as the director of the department of HIV/Aids at the World Health Organization (WHO), he became Dartmouth College president in 2009.

Obama’s nomination of Kim was a surprise move as the job usually goes to someone with wider economic and political experience.

Analysts believe the nomination aims at easing anger with the United States and Europe for their continued dominance of the direction and activities of the World Bank.

Since its founding in 1944, Washington has always chosen the head of the World Bank, and has filled the position each time with an American, without opposition.

This year, however, for the first time, two other candidates are vying with the U.S. nominee. They are renowned economists Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from Nigeria and Jose Antonio Ocampo from Colombia. <Korea Times/Kim Tae-jong>

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