The race to succeed World Bank president Robert Zoellick is heating up with the emergence of the first declared candidate, another American.
Renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs, who led the UN committee on the Millennium Development Goals, threw his hat in the ring on Friday in a Washington Post op-ed piece, saying the World Bank needs an expert like himself rather than another politician or Wall Street banker.
Sachs’ declaration came amid signs the US is eyeing others for the high-profile job.
“The United States signaled that it was looking at the possibility of nominating [US Treasury Secretary Timothy] Geithner, [one of his predecessors Larry] Summers, or someone from the private sector like [Pimco CEO] Mohamed El-Erian,” said a person close to the World Bank, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Those three have remained mum on their interest in heading the global development lender.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has also been widely mentioned in the media as a possibility. Geithner’s deputy for international affairs, Lael Brainard, has drawn some attention as well.
With the deadline for nominations three weeks away, the competition “is beginning to pick up speed,” the source said.
One thing seems certain, though: Despite a chorus of calls from emerging markets and non-governmental organizations for a non-American to lead the development lender, in the name of the “new normal” global economy, the US, as the biggest stakeholder, is expected to decide the winner.
The World Bank has promised the selection process will be “merit-based and transparent” and open to candidates from its 187 member nations.
However, in an unwritten pact since the creation of the World Bank and the IMF almost seven decades ago, the US has always put an American at the helm of the Bank and Europe has ensconced a European as IMF managing director.
The clamor for an alternative has grown louder.
After Zoellick announced two weeks ago he was stepping down on June 30 at the end of his five-year term, China and Brazil called for a fair, competitive selection process.
Neither has put forth an alternative candidate, at least not yet.
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has suggested Muhammad Yunus, who won a Nobel Prize for his work in microfinance.
On Friday, Yunus flatly ruled out taking the job, but the person close to the World Bank suggested that Yunus might still emerge as a candidate.
The source said Brazil would probably nominate someone, with some speculation focusing on former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Nancy Birdsall, head of the Center for Global Development, stressed that the selection process “needs to be competitive” and truly open to any candidate.
She has proposed two “top-notch” candidates from large, fast-growing developing countries: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria and Nandan Nilekania, the Indian co-founder of INFOSYS.
It is crucial that “whoever ends up in the job has the legitimacy that a person that is truly competent would ensure,” she said in a telephone interview.
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