In an effort to solicit global support for his bid for the World Bank presidency, US President Barack Obama’s nominee Mr Jim Young Kim is undertaking a two-week “listening” tour of India, China and five other countries from this week to seek ideas and views about the future of the institution.
Mr Obama had last week declared Mr Jim as his country’s nominee to the World Bank presidency, a post which has traditionally remained with the US.
According to a Treasury Department announcement, Mr Jim would travel to Ethiopia, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Brazil and Mexico from March 27 to April 9, during which he will meet the heads of state, Finance Ministers and other stakeholders to solicit their priorities for the World Bank over the coming years.
The trip is the initial phase of Mr Kim’s “listening tour,” as he begins to solicit ideas and views from around the world about the future of the institution.
Mr Kim will meet many of the World Bank’s shareholder and client countries in order to assess how the Bank can best promote growth, combat poverty and create jobs in developing nations, the Treasury said.
A physician and anthropologist, Mr Kim co-founded Partners In Health, which provides community-based healthcare to break the cycles of disease and poverty in nations around the world.
As Director of the World Health Organisation’s Department of HIV/AIDS, Mr Kim launched the “3 by 5” initiative, which sought to treat 3 million patients living with HIV.
He was the Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and, for the last three years, has led one of the world’s great knowledge institutions, serving as the President of Dartmouth College.