Finance minister urges for more Koreans in World Bank

By Nam Hyun-woo

Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho met World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim on Wednesday and asked him to hire more Korean employees.

In their meeting at the Government Complex in central Seoul, Yoo and Kim also discussed enhancing the role of the World Bank Group’s Korea office and expanding Korea’s contribution to the International Development Association (IDA).

“Given Korea’s contribution to the World Bank, more Koreans should work at it,” said Yoo. “Having more Koreans in the World Bank will strengthen the mutual cooperation and will meet the World Bank’s employing policy of hiring a committed workforce that is diverse in gender, nationality and ethnic background.”

According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Korea’s stake in the World Bank stands at 1.69 percent, but only 0.54 percent of its employees are Korean.

Yoo called for Kim’s support for more Koreans to work at international financial organizations through various channels, including an international financial organization job fair to be hosted by the Korean government in November.

Kim pledged his support for the job fair and said the World Bank will send a recruiting delegation in November to hire quality workers in Korea.

The two agreed that both the World Bank and the Korean government would study plans to expand and improve the World Bank’s Korea office so that it can be more efficient in setting up and implementing development projects.

The office was established in Songdo, Incheon, in September 2014. Since then, it has launched projects allowing Korean public and private firms to cooperate with the International Financial Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency so that they can participate in development projects in other countries.

In 2015, the Korea Southern Power Corp., the Export-Import Bank of Korea and organizations from other countries participated in a $370-million waterpower generation project in Pakistan. This year, KB Kookmin and KEB Hana Bank joined a $320-million water resources management project in China.

During their meeting, Kim requested the Korean government to actively join in financing the IDA.

The IDA is an organization under the World Bank committed to supporting countries fighting poverty. Korea joined the IDA in 1961 as a borrowing country but has since been taking part as a contributor since 1978.

In IDA’s 17th replenishment, from 2015 to 2017, Korea made a $383 million contribution, accounting for 1.1 percent of the overall financing pool. It was the 15th largest contribution among the nearly 50 countries that joined the pool.