No BRICS proposal for World Bank seat

NEW DELHI - Agence France-Presse

Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim and his wife arrive at a dinner in honor of South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak at the White House on Oct 13.

The BRICS bloc of emerging countries has no plans to unite behind a common candidate to head the World Bank, an Indian foreign ministry official has said.

Briefing journalists on the agenda of an upcoming meeting of the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS), the official said on March 26 that the grouping simply wanted an “open and merit-based” process.

“I have not heard anything so far (about a common candidate),” Sudhir Vyas, the secretary for economic affairs at the foreign ministry, told a media briefing ahead of the BRICS summit tomorrow.

The World Bank announced on March 23 that there were three candidates to succeed outgoing president Robert Zoellick in the first challenge to the US monopoly of the top job in history.

Jose Antonio Ocampo, a Colombian university professor, and Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala will challenge Washington’s candidate Jim Yong Kim, currently president of Dartmouth College.

China’s foreign ministry said on March 26 that “the voice of developing countries” should be taken into account when selecting a new leader for the World Bank.

The Washington-based lender is expected to select its new president “by consensus” by its 2012 Spring meetings that begin on April 20.