MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

World Bank Appoints Chinese Academic as Top Economist

Lin Yifu, Economist at the Peking University

The World Bank appointed Chinese national Justin Lin as its chief economist, the first time the post has gone to a candidate outside Europe and the U.S.

"As our first chief economist from a developing country, and an expert on economic development and particularly agriculture, Justin Lin brings a unique set of skills and experience to the World Bank Group," Robert Zoellick, head of the Washington-based lender, said in a statement on the bank's Web site. South Africa and other nations have pushed to end the monopoly of Europeans and Americans in top roles at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund since Zoellick took the helm last year. The appointment of the Taiwan-born Lin, 55, who defected to China in 1979, reflects the increasing importance of the world's fastest-growing developing country, said Suhaimi Ilias, an economist at Aseambankers Malaysia Bhd., part of Malaysia's largest banking group. "The World Bank's main responsibility is providing financial and technical assistance to developing countries," Suhaimi said. "Someone from a developing country that is successfully transforming the economy via rapid economic growth, yet still facing many socio-economic issues that come with development, may be the right thing." 'Historic Decision'"This appointment is a high honor, and it's a historic decision for the World Bank," Lin said in an interview published by the official Xinhua News Agency today. "By picking a candidate from China, the World Bank will be able to better serve developing countries." Lin is the founder and director of the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University. He has served as a consultant to the World Bank since 1993, according to the profile published by his employer. Lin defected to China from Taiwan while serving in the army by swimming between Kinmen in Taiwan to Xiamen in the People's Republic of China, said a former World Bank official. In 2003, he canceled a return trip to Taiwan for his father's funeral to avoid causing "trouble," according to the Taipei Times. Lin completed a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago in 1986 and a master's degree in political economy from Peking University. Lin is expected to assume the role on May 31, the World Bank said. Lin will replace Francois Bourguignon, who stepped down as chief economist in October 2007 after four years in the post. The job has also been held by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. 'Washington Consensus' "I think it's good that the World Bank has the first non- western economist as the chief economist," said Masahiro Kawai, dean of the Tokyo-based Asian Development Bank Institute. ''His philosophy is different from the so-called Washington consensus that a country needs to adopt a proper macro-economic policy of low inflation, a small fiscal deficit and liberal investment and trade." Although Lin is familiar with China's economic development, "his challenge may be that some developing economies such as those of Africa don't have as strong a centralized government as China," Kawai said. Lin is the author of more than a dozen books and more than 100 articles, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. He has written widely on agriculture, which Zoellick identified as a priority for the World Bank at the group's annual meeting in October. "What happens in China increasingly matters for the rest of the world,," said Robert Subbaraman, senior economist at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in Hong Kong, "so it's good to have more Chinese people populating important international organizations." "His appointment symbolizes the rise of Chinese power," said Toshihiko Kinoshita, a professor of international development and finance at Waseda University in Tokyo. "People want China to act as a stakeholder in the world."