World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim, 59, on Monday announced his resignation after six years in the post.
No explanation has been given for the sudden resignation.
Mr Kim who was re-elected for a second five-year term in 2017 was expected to serve in the position until 2022.
In a statement, the multilateral lender said, “Mr Kim will join a firm and focus on increasing infrastructure investments in developing countries.
The details of the infrastructure fund that Mr Kim is set to join will be released later by the World Bank.
“I has been a great honor to serve as President of this remarkable institution, full of passionate individuals dedicated to the mission of ending extreme poverty in our lifetime,” said Mr Kim in his statement.”The world 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,” he added.
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The South-Korean native who plans to exit the institution on 1st February was first appointed to the position in 2012 by President Obama.
The world bank chief executive officer, Kristalina Georgieva will step in as the interim president.
The sudden resignation may cause a potential dispute between the U.S and other member countries over the selection of the new leader of the world’s largest development-finance institution.
U.S President Donald Trump may have a resolute influence over the future leadership of the World Bank since the Treasury Department takes lead on issues with the institution.
During Kim’s tenure, the bank set goal of eliminating extreme poverty by 2030 and replenished the funding for the International Development Association that support poorest counties.
He also achieved the approval of $13 billion capital this past April after the Treasury criticized the World Bank for lending too much to China and ‘too generous’ compensation packages.
Mr Kim’s leadership wasn’t without controversy as he hit by high levels of disaffection among World Bank staff who were frustrated with the reorganization of the bank that he began.
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