World Bank race:

Despite challenge, US pick favored to lead World Bank

DESPITE an unprecedented challenge from two developing-world candidates, Washington's 66-year lock on the World Bank presidency will almost certainly remain intact when directors meet today to fill the post.

US nominee, health expert Jim Yong-Kim (pictured left) and his main challenger, Nigeria's Finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (right)

Even after one of the challengers dropped out last Friday to push his support to the other — Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala— they won't be able to overcome US and European backing for the US nominee, health expert Jim Yong-Kim (pictured), analysts say.

But the first-ever challenge to traditional American control of the job has signalled that, as with the International Monetary Fund, emerging economies are flexing their muscles for a bigger say in how the near seven-decade old institutions are run.

Bank directors say they aim for a consensus decision when they meet formally today to replace current President Robert Zoellick, the former US diplomat incumbent who is leaving in June at the end of his five-year term.

The position is crucial for much of the developing world. The president oversees a staff of 9,000 economists, development experts and other policy specialists, and a loan portfolio that hit $258 billion in 2011.

Last year the bank committed $43 billion to new loans and grants, helping diverse countries to develop infrastructure, administration, and key sectors of their economies. Bank experts say Zoellick has done a good job to unite a staff who became dispirited under his predecessor Paul Wolfowitz, and credit him with energizing the bank to act during the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

But they also say the institution needs a new direction that matches the requirements of a much-changed global economic landscape. It needs a cohesive vision, according to former bank staffer Katherine Marshall, now a professor of government at Georgetown University.

The race was taken seriously early as the US appeared unable to find a candidate while Okonjo-Iweala and Colombian economist and former finance minister Jose AntonioOcampo threw their names into the hat.

But the White House surprised all with the nomination of Kim. Not a banker or diplomat like the previous bank presidents, the Korean-American physician is the head of the Ivy League Dartmouth College but is also known for his work with the World Health Organization on fighting Aids.