On Monday, Jim Yong Kim announced his resignation as president of the international lending institution.
The World Bank Group announced on Monday that its president Jim Yong Kim will be stepping down with effect from February.
President Kim stated:
“It has been a great honor to serve as president of this remarkable institution, full of passionate individuals dedicated to the mission of ending extreme poverty in our lifetime, The work of the World Bank Group is more important now than ever as the aspirations of the poor rise all over the world, and problems like climate change, pandemics, famine and refugees continue to grow in both their scale and complexity. Serving as president and helping position the institution squarely in the middle of all these challenges has been a great privilege.”
During his term, Kim emphasised that one of the greatest needs in the developing world is infrastructure finance, and he pushed the Bank Group to maximise finance for development by working with a new cadre of private sector partners committed to building sustainable, climate-smart infrastructure in developing countries.
Kim also announced that immediately after his departure, he will be joining a firm where he can focus on increasing infrastructure investments in developing countries. He will also be re-joining the board of Partners In Health (PIH), which he co-founded over 30 years ago.
“I look forward to working once again with my longtime friends and colleagues at PIH on a range of issues in global health and education. I will also continue my engagement with Brown University as a trustee of the Corporation and look forward to serving as a Senior Fellow at Brown’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs,” Kim said.
World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva will take up the role of interim president with effect from 1 February.
