World Bank President Robert Zoellick retires in June
By Today Financial News Reporter
World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick will step down in June after five years at the helm of the world’s largest development assistance agency.
WB President Robert Zoellick
During his tenure, Mr Zoellick the Bank played an historic role during the global economic crisis, using record replenishments to provide more than $247 billion to help developing countries boost growth and overcome poverty.
“I’m honored to have led such a world class institution with so many talented and exceptional people. Together we have focused on supporting developing countries to navigate crises and adjust to global economic shifts,” said Zoellick.
“The Bank has recognized that we live in a world of multiple poles of growth where traditional concepts of the "Third World" are now outdated and where developing countries have a key role to play as growth drivers and responsible stakeholders. At the same time, we've scaled up our support to poor people, countries, and communities and shown that the Bank can be an indispensable innovator, catalyst, and driver of a modernized multilateralism."
He added “I’m very pleased that when the world needed the Bank to step up, our shareholders responded with expanded resources and support for key reforms that made us quicker, more effective and more open.”
“The Bank is now strong, healthy and well positioned for new challenges, and so it is a natural time for me to move on and support new leadership.”
Other notable achievement includes the first general capital increase for the Bank in over 20 years, with over half the new capital from developing countries; and a record $90 billion raised for IDA, the World Bank’s fund for the poorest, against a very challenging backdrop of donor austerity;
The Bank also alerted the world to the forthcoming food crisis, and helped marshal new resources and tools to address it. World Bank agriculture lending increased to $6 billion per year and created a new IFC (private sector) Asset Management Company to channel sovereign wealth funds and pension resources (to date $3 billion) to the private sector in Africa and other emerging markets.
Zoellick also witnessed the opening up the World Bank – landmark Access to Information policy, and Open Data Initiative throwing open the doors on Bank processes, projects, and data; to boost transparency and accountability all Bank projects have been geo mapped with clearly defined results-measurement.
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