Does the World Still Need the World Bank?

摘要

There will always be a need for a World Bank. There is no need for a World Bank with more than 10,000 employees. President Jim Yong Kim is trying to reform the bank, one of the global financial institutions that emerged from the historic Bretton Woods agreements signed on July 22, 1944. He is getting strong resistance from a rank and file protective of its parking subsidies, business-class travel, and generous meal allowances. The danger for Kim, however, is that he will be too timid. By its own admission, the bank is fighting for relevancy now that many of its customers don't need it anymore. The developing world's rising middle class is attracting private capital and reducing the need for countries to borrow from the World Bank. More than $1 trillion a year now flows from the private sector and major philanthropies to developing economies. Official development assistance, by contrast, totals about $125 billion. Last year, the World Bank's new lending came to less than $35 billion.