Candidates for World Bank next president announced

PanARMENIAN.Net - There are three candidates for the next president of the World Bank, BBC News reported.

They are Jim Yong Kim from the U.S., Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from Nigeria and Jose Antonio Ocampo from Colombia.

The U.S. has always held the position since the World Bank was founded in 1944 and several names were rumored to be under consideration by President Barack Obama.

But there has been increasing pressure for the next head of the Bank to be from a developing nation.

Many economists had been rumored to be under consideration by President Obama, so when Dr Jim Yong Kim was named as his choice it came as somewhat of a surprise.

The 52-year-old is a leading figure in global health. A doctor and former director of the HIV/Aids department at the World Health Organization, he also co-founded the health charity Partners in Health in 1987.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Nigerian finance minister has been endorsed by three African countries - South Africa, Angola and Nigeria - and is seen as a very serious candidate. Mrs Okonjo-Iweala, 57, was previously a managing director at the World Bank, appointed by Robert Zoellick in October 2007, a role she held until last year when she took up her government position. She is in her second stint as finance minister, having also served under former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Mr Ocampo is best known as the former finance minister for Colombia - though he has also held other posts in government, including agriculture. He is well respected for a series of policies that helped his nation avoid the worst of the financial crises that have struck Latin America over the years. Currently, he is professor of professional practice in the International and Public Affairs department of Columbia University in New York. He has also been a visiting fellow at Oxford and Yale.