US President Donald Trump, has nominated David Malpass, a critic of multilateral institutions including the World Bank, to replace Dr Jim Yong Kim, as the World Bank president.
Malpass is a Trump loyalist, who served as senior economic adviser to the president during his campaigns in 2016, and currently the undersecretary for International Affairs at the US Treasury Department. “I am certain there could be no better candidate to lead the World Bank than David. He’s going to do very well,” Trump said from the White House on Wednesday night.
Responding to his nomination, Malpass said he was very optimistic the bank can achieve breakthroughs in combating extreme poverty.
“I’m very optimistic that we can achieve breakthroughs to create growth abroad that will help us combat extreme poverty and increase economic opportunities in the developing world,” Malpass said.
In the recent past, Malpass had criticised both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund policies, calling for improvements in the bank’s lending programmes
He said a process must be in put in place “to focus, prune and streamline” such multilateral institutions.
US nominees have always gone ahead to become president of the World Bank — since it was founded over 70 years ago.
For the first time in 2012, the nomination for the World Bank presidency was widened outside the US as governors from developing countries nominated Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s former minister of finance, who is expected to contest the post for a second time, if nominated.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos held last month, Okonjo-Iweala who was asked if she would recontest, said: “I know that, because I contested the last time in 2012, and many people were asking that question. It is a shareholders’ decision and they have to decide how they want it. Someone has to nominate”.
“If the right persons were to nominate, and if the circumstances are right and people feel I can do the job, yes.