The race to succeed World Bank president Robert Zoellick is heating up with the emergence of the first declared candidate, another American. Renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs, who led the UN committee on the Millennium development goals, threw his hat in the ring Friday in a Washington Post op-ed piece, saying the World Bank needs an expert like himself rather than another politician or Wall Street banker.

Sachs’s declaration came amid signs the United States is eyeing others for the high-profile job.
“The United States signaled that it was looking at the possibility of nominating (Treasury Secretary Timothy) Geithner, (one of his predecessors Larry) Summers, or someone from the private sector like (Pimco chief executive) Mohamed El-Erian,” said a person close to the World Bank, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Those three have remained mum on their interest in heading the global development lender. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also has been widely mentioned in the media as a possibilty. Geithner’s deputy for international affairs, Lael Brainard, has drawn some attention as well.
With the deadline for nominations three weeks away, the competition “is beginning to pick up speed,” the source said.

One thing seems certain, though: despite a chorus of calls from emerging markets and NGOs for a non-American to lead the development lender, in the name of the “new normal” global economy, the United States, as the biggest stakeholder, is expected to decide the winner.
The World Bank has promised the selection process will be “merit-based and transparent” and open to candidates from its 187 member nations.

But in an unwritten pact since the creation of theWorld Bank and the International Monetary Fund nearly seven decades ago, the US has always put an American at the helm of the Bank and Europe has ensconced a European as IMF managing director. But the clamor for an alternative has grown louder.

After Zoellick announced two weeks ago he was stepping down on June 30 at the end of his five-year term, China and Brazil called for a fair, competitive selection process.

Neither has put forth an alternative candidate, at least not yet.Bangladesh prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has suggested Muhammad Yunus, who won a Nobel Prize for his work in microfinance. On Friday Yunus flatly ruled out taking the job, but the person close to the World Bank suggested that Yunus may still emerge as a candidate.

“But right now it isn’t the intention of the Indian director on the board to propose him.”
An Indian director holds the board seat shared by India and Bangladesh.

The Daily Independent/Bangladesh/ 5th March 2012

An agreement for business process improvement has been signed between City Bank and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Private Limited, says a press release. Under this agreement, PwC will initiate the business process re-engineering process and the functional validation of the Bank’s core banking system through analysis of the current practices of City Bank compared against the global best practices.

Through this project, the process of City Bank will be aligned with the best banking practices seen across the development markets. This will eventually result in greater customer satisfaction and compliance at the same time.

Globally, Pricewaterhouse-Coopers International Limited is currently the largest accounting and consulting firm. PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited was named a “Leader” in Gratner’s Magic Quadrant for Financial Management Consulting Services Worldwide 2011.
The agreement was signed by K Mahmood Sattar, managing director and chief executive officer of City Bank and Pradip Bhowmick, executive director of PwC.

City Bank additional managing directors--Sohail RK Hussain and Faruq M. Ahmed, deputy managing director and chief operations officer Mashrur Arefin and Sekhar Mukherji, project director for PwC were also present during the signing ceremony.

The Dail Independent/Bangladesh/ 5th March 2012

The first branch managers conference-2012’ of Pubali Bank for Noakhali region was held at Maijdee Court recently.

The conference was arranged for motivating the branch managers so that they render better services to the clients in a bid to increase Bank’s business, said a press release.

M A Halim Chowdhury, Additional Managing Director of the Bank and Habibur Rahman, general manager of credit division were present.

Deputy General Manager Md. Ashraful Alam, Noakhali region presided over the conference.

The managing director in his speech urged all to work hard, look for new business avenues and adopt diversification and to take concerted efforts for achieving the target fixed for the year 2012.

He also stressed on the expansion of foreign remittance business through better customer and modern banking services.

MA Halim Chowdhury also advised the branch managers to keep close vigilance and monitoring so that disbursed loans may not become overdue or classified.

He underscored the need for increasing utilisation of the modern Information Technology for qualitative improvement in the overall customer services in the highly competitive Banking sector.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 5th March 2012

In assessing the growth prospects this year of the emerging Asian economies, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has tempered its optimism with caution although it expects a "fairly robust" growth of an average of 7 per cent this year for the region.

In a press briefing on Thursday after his courtesy call on Philippine President Benigno Aquino III in Malacanang, ADB President and Chairman Haruhiko Kuroda said the Bank is " cautiously optimistic" on the emerging Asian economies over the short term due to rising oil prices and the still volatile European financial situation.

According to Kuroda, although there could still be some slowdown compared with 2010 and 2011, "still we expect a fairly robust growth in Asia, particularly emerging Asia or developing Asia and average growth rate could be 7 per cent or 7 per cent plus."

Kuroda said that a 7 per cent growth rate was "still quite a high respectable rate of economic growth" in the region.

For the Philippines, Kuroda said, the country is expected to grow by 5 per cent this year, and 6 per cent to 7 per cent in the medium and long term.

Last year, the Philippines had a dismal full-year growth of only 3.7 per cent, much lower than the government forecast of 4.5 to 5.5 per cent.

Earlier, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut also its growth projection even for the better-performing ASEAN region, which includes the Philippines, citing a mild recession likely to happen in Europe this year that may dampen growth of other areas.

The IMF now sees the ASEAN 5--composed of the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore-posting an average growth of 5.2 this year and 5.6 per cent in 2013 on the back of the prolonged crisis in the eurozone.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 5th March 2012

ERF members called on Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr Atiur Rahman on Sunday.

Economic Reporters Forum (ERF) members requested the Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr Atiur Rahman for organising training programmes for journalists on economic issues.

They made the request at a meeting with BB Governor at the latter’s office on Sunday. BB Governor assured the ERF members of his all out support.

BB Executive Director Md Ahsan Ullah, Senior Consultant and Adviser to Governor Md Allah Malik Kazemi, Deputy Governor Begum Naznin Sultana, Executive Director Md Jahangir Alam, Senior Economic Adviser to Governor Dr Hassan Zaman, General Manager AFM Asadu-zzamn, ERF President Khawza Mainuddin, Vice President Mir Mostafizur Rahman, among others, were present at the meeting.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 5th March 2012