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World Bank President Jim Yong Kim
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First ethnic Korean and Asian to lead organization resigns with 3 years left in term
Jim Yong Kim announced on Jan. 7 that he will be stepping down as president of the World Bank as of Feb. 1.
Kim, 59, became not only the first ethnic Korean but the first-ever Asian to head the World Bank in 2012. Observers offered different analyses for his sudden decision to step down with over three years left in his second five-year term.
“I will be stepping down as @worldbank Group president on February 1,” Kim tweeted on Jan. 7.
“It’s been the greatest privilege I could have ever imagined to lead the dedicated staff of this great institution to bring us closer to a world that is finally free of poverty,” he added.
In an email to staffers, Kim wrote that he would be going to work at a private company focusing on infrastructure investment in developing countries.
“The opportunity to join the private sector was unexpected, but I’ve concluded that this is the path through which I will be able to make the largest impact on major global issues like climate change and the infrastructure deficit in emerging markets,” he said.
The World Bank announced that the role of interim president would be assumed by chief executive officer Kristalina Georgieva.
The Korean-American Kim is a public health expert who served as head of the WHO’s AIDS bureau and became president of the Ivy League school Dartmouth College in 2009. He became World Bank president during the Barack Obama administration in 2012, and was successfully reelected to a second term in July 2017.
In announcing his plan to resign during a board meeting that morning, Kim reportedly did not provide an explanation on the specific reasons. While World Bank presidents have stepped down in the middle of their term in the past, “surprise announcements” like Kim’s have reportedly been rare. This has some speculating the reason for the resignation announcement may have been discord with the administration of US President Donald Trump, which holds major influence as majority shareholder in the World Bank.
“Mr Kim has avoided public clashes with President Trump, but his policy approach was sometimes at odds with the president's approach to climate change,” the BBC noted.
“Under Mr Kim, the World Bank has ended its support of coal power projects – in contrast to Mr Trump's promise to revive the US coal industry,” it added.
The Wall Street Journal noted that the US Treasury Department had criticized the World Bank in the past for granting too many loans to China.
Other observers suggested Kim’s frictions with the US administration were not too serious, as evidenced by the Treasury Department’s move in Apr. 2018 to provide support a US$13 billion capital increase for the World Bank. Sources also reported internal discontent over restructuring efforts spearheaded in the bank by Kim.
By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent
Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]

