Financial Times

Peter Harrold, the World Bank Country Director completes his 4-year term of service and leaves at the end of July, with Ms. Naoko Ishii taking over as the new representative, the world Bank’s Colombo office said.

Harrold, a popular personality and also a good singer-guitarist in his spare time, will be taking up a senior management position in the Bank’s Washington headquarters.

Ms. Ishii, a Japanese national, has been a Director in the Japanese Ministry of Finance since 2002 where she has been responsible for working on Japanese policy on development assistance, including policies pertaining to multilateral development institutions. She was the World Bank Program Coordinator for Vietnam from 1997 until 2001. Other assignments have included that of Economist with the International Monetary Fund from 1992 until 1995.

The statement said Harrold’s term in Colombo saw a remarkable turnaround in the Bank’s assistance to Sri Lanka both in financial support and in the provision of analytical and advisory services. “Mr. Harrold has worked tirelessly to support the government to overcome many impediments to poverty reduction, particularly bringing in to focus regional inequalities. He led the team which formulated the first results based Country Assistance Strategy in 2003 which saw a quadrupling of assistance compared to the previous period,” it said.

The current program has included a strong emphasis on reconstruction of the conflict-affected areas and community driven development in poverty stricken parts of Sri Lanka.