Australian Executive Director To The World Bank

Nomination Of Australian Executive Director To The World Bank, Washington

The Treasurer, the Hon Peter Costello, MP, today announced the nomination of Mr Neil Hyden, Chief Adviser (International), Department of the Treasury, to the position of Executive Director of the World Bank in Washington.

Mr Hyden will be representing a constituency of countries within the World Bank, the members of which are:Australia; Cambodia; Kiribati; Korea; Marshall Islands; the Federated States of Micronesia; Mongolia; New Zealand; Palau; Papua New Guinea; Samoa; Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. His appointment will be confirmed following an election by the World Bank Governors from these countries.

The term of the current Executive Director representing our World Bank constituency, Mr Young-Hoi Lee, ends on 31 July 1999. Mr Hyden is expected to take up his position on 1 August 1999.

Australia has been a member of the World Bank since 1947. The World Bank's mission is to promote sustainable development, poverty alleviation and structural reform in developing countries through provision of policy advice, concessional loans and technical assistance. Over the past two years it has been a key player in assisting recovery and reform in crisis-affected economies in East Asia, pledging some US$16 billion (in addition to its regular lending program) to address the extra demands that arose from the crisis.

Mr Hyden has had a distinguished Treasury career, with a decade of experience in dealing with the international financial institutions and in advancing more broadly Australia's interests in international fora. He was a member of the Multilateral Development Task Force, established in 1995-96, which laid out strategic directions for the future operations of the multilateral development banks. He chaired the APEC Investment Experts Group in 1996-98; and was a member of the G-22 working group on transparency and accountability established in 1998 as part of the review of the international financial architecture. More recently, Mr Hyden has taken a prominent role in advancing the implementation of the recommendations of the Prime Ministers' Task Force on International Financial Reform.

CANBERRA ACT

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