New Delhi (India), 3rd June 2023: Ajay Banga, an Indian-American business executive, took over as World Bank president on Friday. Banga, 63, will be the organisation’s first Indian American leader.
Ajay Banga, called the lender’s 16,000 workers on Friday to “double down” on development and climate efforts as he aims to speed the bank’s transformation to address the most pressing global crises.
In an email quoted by Reuters, the former Mastercard CEO informed colleagues on his first day that he would aim to recruit everyone of them to work towards his vision of “creating a world free from poverty on a liveable planet.”
Banga wrote, “Making good on our ambition will require us to evolve to maximise resources and write a new playbook, to think creatively, take informed risks and forge new partnerships with civil society and multilateral institutions.”
The email also quoted Banga saying, “We are at a critical moment in the arc of humanity and the planet.”
Mr Banga, who was elected as the World Bank’s new president last month for a five-year term, will take office as the agency evolves with a stronger emphasis on climate change while maintaining its fundamental aim of decreasing global poverty.
Banga also commented on the challenges faced by the World Bank and said, “The World Bank’s challenge is clear: It must pursue both climate adaptation and mitigation, it must reach out to lower-income countries without turning its back on middle-income countries, it must think globally but recognise national and regional needs, it must embrace risk but do so prudently.”
Lastly Banga wrote, “Change is appropriate for the World Bank. It isn’t a symptom of failure or drift or irrelevance, it is a symptom of opportunity, life and importance.”
