World Bank presidential nominee Kim begins 7-country 'listening tour' to promote candidacy

The White House nominee for president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, on Tuesday begins a seven-country "listening tour" in order "to promote his candidacy with stops in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the Treasury Department announced Monday," Bloomberg Businessweek reports (Crutsinger, 3/26). According to Reuters, "The Treasury Department said Kim will visit Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as well as Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, New Delhi, Brasilia and Mexico City between March 27 and April 9 to meet heads of state, finance ministers and others to talk about priorities for the World Bank."

Kim, a physician and anthropologist who currently is president of Dartmouth College, "will be contesting two nominees from emerging market countries -- Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and former Colombian Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo -- for the World Bank's top job," Reuters notes (3/27). In an interview with Reuters released on Monday, Okonjo-Iweala said that "emerging market countries ... need to be given a voice in running things," and added that she would not "have a learning curve" moving into a leadership position at the World Bank. "Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Reuters over the weekend that he was confident that Kim ... would win global support for the job," the news agency reports, adding, "Through his work in fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and getting health care to the poor, Kim had shown an ability to get things done in tough environments, Geithner said" (Wroughton, 3/26).