World Bank to appoint country manager

Instead of country director, World Bank is appointing country manager in Nepal from July.

The World Bank today said that it will merge the Nepal and Bangladesh country director positions to increase its efficiency and to achieve greater synergies between World Bank offices and staff located in the South Asia region. Other large World Bank programmes in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and East Asia have already undergone similar changes.

“We have conveyed to the government that our office in Kathmandu will remain operational and fully staffed under the leadership of a new country manager, who will be permanently stationed in Kathmandu to serve Nepal’s interests,” said the World Bank country director for Nepal Susan Goldmark.

According to Goldmark, the decision by World Bank senior management is guided purely by internal needs and is in line with management’s efforts, over many years, at consolidation.

“Nepal remains an important partner for the World Bank,” she said, adding that over the past four years, the multilateral agency has significantly strengthened its presence in Kathmandu and size of its portfolio has grown four-fold. “The internal changes won’t affect volume of assistance, which has always been determined by Nepal’s development policies, and performance.”