Kim's selection continues World Bank's decades-long trend

 　　WASHINGTON, April 16 (Xinhua) -- With Monday's choice of U.S.-nominated Jim Yong Kim to head the World Bank, the global lending institution continued its longstanding -- and controversial -- tradition of keeping an American at the helm.

　　Nominated last month by U.S. President Barack Obama to succeed current World Bank chief Robert Zoellick, Kim's selection continued a trend dating back to the Bank's inception 1 after the Second World War.
　　"I am honored to accept the executive directors' decision to select me as the next president of the World Bank Group," Kim said Monday.
　　"I am delighted to succeed Robert Zoellick, who has served with excellence 2 and distinction during the last five years, and I am grateful to the bank's member countries for the broad support I have received," he said.
　　The change in leadership came amid mounting pressure from some member states of the bank -- and its sister organization the International Monetary 3 Fund -- to recognize the rise of new key economic players.
　　Critics have long contended that the bank's presidency 4 reflects the global economy as it looked more than half a century ago, underscored by the fact that the United States has the largest voting share.
　　The bank on Monday said its executive directors followed a new selection process agreed upon last year, which yielded multiple nominees 6 for the first time ever.
　　The process included an open nomination 7 where any national of the bank's membership could be proposed by any executive director or governor; publication of the names of the candidates; interviews of the candidates by the executive directors; and final selection.
　　But some said the process remains 8 heavily weighted toward a U.S. advantage.
　　"One could also say that the process is still heavily flawed because of the voting power of the Americans, which in combination with the Europeans... can decide who is the next president," said Yukon Huang, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
　　Meanwhile, Huang, who used to serve as World Bank director for China, noted 9 that the non-American candidates were given serious consideration in what amounted to a more open process this time.
　　"So a truly open process ultimately has to begin by changing the voting process for determining who the (president's) successor is," he said.
　　Still, the selection of Kim was a break from the long line of bankers who have previously 10 headed the bank.
　　Huang said the decision was intelligent, as Kim is a non-political candidate who can be weighed on his personal and professional merits, rather than being a political appointee.
　　Kim has worked on development issues and has a unique personal background, having been born in South Korea, Huang noted.
　　Kim's major rival in the selection process, Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, spent essentially 11 her whole career with the World Bank aside from her service as Nigerian Finance Minister.
　　"One could argue that if you are looking for change, it is less likely to happen with someone who I would call 'part of the system,'" Huang said.
　　Barry Bosworth, a former presidential advisor 12 and expert on fiscal 13 and monetary policy at the Brookings Institution, said the bank has made some progress this time around with the nominee 5 of more than one candidate.
　　"That's at least progress compared to the past, when the Americans told you who it was going to be and that was the end of it," he said.
　　For all the attention surrounding the selection, however, it makes little difference who sits at the helm, aside from appearances, as the bank is ultimately run by staff, Bosworth said.
　　Kim, president of Dartmouth College and former director of the department of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organization, will serve as president for a five-year term beginning July 1.
　　He has held professorships at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. He was selected in 2006 as one of TIME magazine's "100 Most Influential 14 People in the World."