Mahmoud Mohieldin, Egypt's first-ever minister of investment, has been nominated for a prominent position at the World Bank (WB), according to informed sources. The bank, which functions as part of the United Nations system, offers financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. Informed sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm that Mohieldin had been nominated for the position of Bank Manager, a position directly under that of WB vice president. If he accepts the nomination, Mohieldin will be tasked with managing the organization's poverty-alleviation and development files and with promoting private-sector development. According to an Egyptian political source, the nomination is being handled with the utmost secrecy pending further discussions by Egypt's Council of Ministers and President Hosni Mubarak, with the final word on the nomination resting with the latter. The same source said that a final decision on the issue had yet to be taken. The source went on to explain that, if the nomination were accepted, Mohieldin would no longer be eligible to run in Egypt's upcoming parliamentary elections as the representative of the Kafr al-Shaikh constituency. Mohieldin would also be obliged to relinquish his ministerial position. Mohieldin is one of the Arab world's most prominent experts on banking and investment. He received his PhD in financial economics--with a dissertation on "financial liberalization policies in developing countries"--from the UK's University of Warwick in 1995. In 2004, he was put in charge of Egypt's newly-created investment portfolio. The World Bank, founded in 1944, is based in Washington, DC and is headed by Robert B. Zoellick. The bank has over ten thousand employees in over 100 offices around the world. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
