Chinese national and World Bank veteran Qimiao Fan will take over as new World Bank country director for Kenya, Uganda, Somalia and Rwanda, the Bretton Woods institution said in a statement.
- Fan, who joined the bank in 1991, has previously served as country manager for Cambodia, Country Director for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine, and Country Director for Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal.
- He has also previously served as a senior executive including as a CEO and a vice chairman of a board in China’s private sector, after taking a sabbatical in the late 1990s.
- Fan’s appointment took effect on September 1st.
“Fan, who has over 35 years of experience in development practice, will oversee the design and implementation of the World Bank’s support program to the four countries that has an active portfolio consisting of 102 projects totaling $17.2 billion,” the World Bank said in the statement.
In China, Fan was Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of HC International between 2000 and 2002. Before that, he had served as Vice Chairman of the Board and CEO of Tintic Trust and Investment Company, and as Vice President of UBS Securities (East Asia) Limited.
Fan’s appointment comes at a time when the relationship between Nairobi and Bretton Woods institutions is fraught with tension over mandated structural adjustment programmes that have proved unpopular. Fan will also have to navigate the tendency of World Bank policies to clash with those of its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund.
Fan will replace Keith E. Hansen, who served in the role from September 2020.
