No matter who takes office as the next head of the World Bank, the future president has to cooperate with China on poverty reduction and sustainable development. Given this situation, the world should not over-interpret the influence of the bank's management shift on China's trade and economy, analysts told the Global Times on Tuesday.
The comments came after a Reuters report on Tuesday claiming Jim Yong Kim's resignation "could be a new stick" for US President Donald Trump to beat China with since the White House has a big say on the top position at the bank.
The World Bank announced on Monday that its president, Kim, would step down from his position as of February 1, an unexpected decision that came three years before his term was scheduled to end.
"No matter who holds the position, the person has to cooperate with China in terms of sustainable development and poverty reduction. These are sectors where the world should join hands, including China and the US," Chen Fengying, a research fellow at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
In April 2018, China boosted its shareholding in the World Bank, increasing its stake in the bank's main fund to 5.71 percent from 4.5 percent, ranking third after Japan and the US, whose shares slipped to 6.83 percent and 15.87 percent, respectively, according to a Reuters report in April last year.
However, the US retains veto power at the bank. Past presidents of the multilateral lender were all nominated by the US, based on a tacit understanding of 70 years that the US puts forward the president of the World Bank while the EU does the same at the IMF.
It is notable that the board of executive directors at the bank has agreed that the president should be appointed based on merit, not nationality, according to Chinese financial website yicai.com.
The change of management at the World Bank Group will not pose threats to China's major international trade and economic interests since it functions as a loan provider to the developing world's infrastructure projects with an ambition to end extreme poverty, said Wang Jun, deputy director of the Department of Information at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.
Bai Ming, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said that the management shift at the global lender should not be "over-interpreted."
"Decisions made in this international organization are the result of discussion among different parties, including China, though the bank head plays a decisive role in the bank's strategic plan," Bai told the Global Times on Tuesday.
China is a contributor to the World Bank, and its influence in international organizations including the World Bank has also been increasing over the years, Bai said.
