The United States picked a public health expert of South Korean origin as its candidate for the World Bank presidency, a job emerging market economies are contesting for the first time.
In an announcement today at the White House president Barack Obama said he was nominating Jim Yong Kim, president of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and former director of the Department of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organization.
"It is time for a development professional to lead the world's largest development agency," Mr Obama said flanked by Mr Kim, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Angola, Nigeria and South Africa have endorsed the nomination of Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a respected economist and diplomat, as a candidate to take over the bank when Robert Zoellick steps down in June.
"The endorsement is in line with the belief that the appointment of the leadership of the World Bank and its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund, should be merit-based, open and transparent," the three said in a statement.
It was a rare example of unity among countries often at loggerheads as they strive for dominance on the continent.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for US economist Jeffrey Sachs said he was withdrawing his nomination in support of Kim.
"Professor Sachs supports Dr Kim 100 per cent and with complete enthusiasm," spokeswoman Erin Trowbridge said.
The United States has held the presidency since the bank's inception after World War Two, and a European has always headed the IMF.
Brazil would like to nominate former Colombian finance minister Jose Antonio Ocampo, but said it cannot do so without Colombia's support, which now looks unlikely.
While Mr Ocampo had agreed to stand and Brazil was willing to nominate him, Colombian Finance Minister Juan Carlos Echeverry said yesterday his country was instead focusing on a bid for the presidency of the International Labour Organization.
He said that effort had a greater chance of success than going for the World Bank job because Colombia already held the top post at the Inter-American Development Bank.
Russia, a member of the so-called BRICs caucus of large emerging market economies, has refrained from publicly backing a non-US candidate and instead called for a greater role for them in top management at international financial institutions.
Although the World Bank board would like to reach a consensus, Washington retains the largest single voting share and could expect the support of European nations and Japan, the bank's second-largest voting member.
The rise of emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil has put pressure on the United States and Europe to throw open the selection process for both the bank and the IMF.
Last year, all of the bank's 187 member countries agreed on a transparent, merit-based process to select a president.
Reuters
