TIL Desk/Business/Washington/World Bank President Jim Yong Kim has abruptly resigned nearly three years ahead of schedule to join a private infrastructure investment firm, setting up a potential clash between the US and other member countries over selecting the head of the world’s largest development-finance institution.
His resignation will take effect from February 1. Kim, 58, has been in this position for over six years now. He was not due to leave until 2022, after he was re-elected for a second five-year term in 2017. “It has been a great honour to serve as President of this remarkable institution, full of passionate individuals dedicated to the mission of ending extreme poverty in our lifetime,” Kim said.
He will “join a firm and focus on increasing infrastructure investments in developing countries”, the World Bank said on Monday. “The work of the World Bank Group is more important now than ever as the aspirations of the poor rise all over the world, and problems like climate change, pandemics, famine and refugees continue to grow in both their scale and complexity, Kim was quoted as saying in a World Bank press release.
