With just four days to go for nations to put forward nominees to lead the World Bank, the Minister of Finance and former Managing Director of the bank, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is among the candidates being considered for the post of President of the global institution.
Reuters reported on Monday that the two most talked about names among developing countries for the top job were Okonjo-Iweala and the South African Planning Minister, Trevor Samuel.
It was gathered that the developing and emerging market economies were currently in consultations on putting forward names of non-United States candidates.
The dilemma for developing regions, according to the report, however, is finding candidates willing to come forward in a race in which the outcome is felt to be pre-ordained.
However, former Indonesian Finance minister and current World Bank Managing Director, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, and Mexico’s Central Bank Governor, Agustin Carstens, have ruled themselves out.
World Bank board sources were also quoted as saying that there were talks underway about the possibility of appointing a candidate from a developing or emerging economy to head the bank’s private-sector lender, the International Finance Corporation.
IFC’s chief executive officers have mainly been European.
The United States has held the presidency of the bank since its founding after World War II, while a European has always led its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund.
But Washington has yet to publicly identify a candidate and some observers think the delay could signal that the White House is having a hard time convincing possible candidates to take the job.
The White House and Treasury Department have declined to comment.
Sources with knowledge of the administration’s thinking said the hope was to convince a woman to enter the race to replace Robert Zoellick, who has said he will step down when his term expires at the end of June.
Naming a woman could go some way to address calls from emerging-market nations for a change in the status quo. A woman has never led the bank.
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