Dr. Jim Yong Kim resumed duties on Monday as the new World Bank President, stressing the role of the 188-member organisation in helping to address global growth risks and providing development assistance.
“The World Bank has an economic and moral imperative to help address risks to global growth, no matter where they emerge. A strong global economy benefits all countries, and a weak one makes all countries vulnerable” Kim said in a statement released yesterday.
“The global economy remains highly vulnerable. We need to boost confidence in markets and within the private sector. And we need to boost confidence among citizens that our economic system and policies can deliver more sustainable, fair and inclusive economic growth,” said the former president of the US Dartmouth College.
“My immediate priority will be to intensify the World Bank’s efforts to help developing countries maintain progress against poverty in these volatile times,” he stressed.
The Washington-based global organisation recently lowered its economic growth forecast for 2012 to 5.3 per cent? for developing countries, saying that those countries’ budgets and central banks were not as well placed as they were in 2008 and 2009 to address slowing economies.
It was urgent that European countries took all necessary measures to restore stability because their actions would impact growth in all regions of the world, Kim added.