New World Bank boss pledges to maintain climate goals and evolve relations with China

The new president of the World Bank, David Malpbad, said on Tuesday that he would not change the lender's commitment to fighting climate change, but pledged to strengthen its anti-poverty mission and to change the bank's relationship with China.

Malpbad, which started at the bank on Tuesday, was named by US President Donald Trump. Some development professionals feared he would continue Trump's "America First" agenda to the bank by resuming funding for coal-fired power projects and putting pressure on China.

But Malpbad told reporters that he would pursue the World Bank's climate change goals, including his earlier decision to withdraw from coal financing. He described climate change as a "key issue" facing many developing countries around the world.

"The council and governors have a policy in place. I do not expect a change in this policy, "said Malpbad,

A former director of finance, economist and government development officer, Malpbad recently served as the US Treasury's under-secretary of international affairs. He participated in the negotiation of a $ 13 billion capital increase for the World Bank last year.

This reimbursement included the bank's obligation to move from middle-income countries, including China, to low-income countries.

Malpbad at the time was extremely critical of China 's ongoing lending to the World Bank and the Beijing Belt and Road Initiative. But he said Tuesday that new loans to Chinese projects were already declining and that the relationship would move towards an increase in contributions to the bank and a sharing of expertise.

"This means an evolution in which they are much less borrowers and they have more to offer in terms of participation in capital increases, participation in IDA, where China is increasing its contributions," he said. International Development Association, the World Bank Fund for the poorest countries.

He said he will work with China to strengthen the standards of its development projects with greater transparency of debt and procurement standards.

His view of China contrasts with that of US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who told lawmakers that Malpbad's presence at the World Bank would help the US compete with the Chinese Belt and Road initiative. This program involves hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure development and Chinese investments in about 65 countries, with emphasis on transportation axes.

Asked Tuesday at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee, what the US could do to "push back" China's growing presence in international development, Mr. Mnuchin replied, "I think that the best thing to do is David Malpbad, now my head of the World Bank. "

The World Bank, badociated with a new US development agency created by Congress last year, "may be a serious competitor to its Belt and Road," added Mnuchin.

The United States remains the largest shareholder in the World Bank and the Treasury oversees US interests in the institution.

Malpbad said he did not see the need to restructure the World Bank's operations, but that he would seek to make loans more effective in lifting people out of poverty.