Indonesian minister named World Bank managing director - Summary

Jakarta - Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has been appointed managing director of the World Bank Group, the bank said.

The appointment came amid controversy in Indonesia over Indrawati's role in the 2008 bailout of a small bank, which prompted calls for her to resign as finance minister.

World Bank President Robert B Zoellick said Tuesday that Indrawati had been an outstanding finance minister and would play a key role in helping the bank strengthen client support.

"Ms Indrawati brings a unique set of skills and experience to the World Bank Group, from the vantage point of an advancing middle-income country that still faces significant challenges of poverty," Zoellick said.

Indrawati has accepted the appointment, the World Bank said.

"It is a great honor for me and also for my country to have this opportunity to contribute to the very important mission of the bank in changing the world," she was quoted as saying.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono approved Indrawati's new assignment, saying that her departure was a "big loss."

"Ms Sri Mulyani has worked very hard to develop an appropriate fiscal policy and reform our financial system to discipline the use of state budget and improve accountability," the president said, adding that reforms she initiated had resulted in a steady increase in state revenue from taxes.

Indrawati became finance minister in 2005. During 2008-09, she served as coordinating minister of economic affairs. From 2002-04, she was an executive director on the board of the International Monetary Fund.

In her new role, which she will officially assume on June 1, Indrawati will supervise three World Bank regions: Latin America and Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, and East Asia and Pacific.

Indrawati has been questioned by parliament and the country's anti-corruption commission for her role in the 700-million-dollar rescue of Bank Century.

Critics, including the majority in parliament, said the bank should have been allowed to collapse. But Indrawati insisted the move was to prevent a crisis in the banking system at the height of the global economic downturn.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/322079,indonesian-minister-named-world-bank-managing-director--summary.html.