Victoria Kwakwa

World Bank Country Director for Vietnam

Ghanaian economist Victoria Kwakwa starts her job as World Bank Country Director for Vietnam in April. It is an important posting, given Vietnam's economic record over the past three decades and its high gross domestic product growth following one of Asia's most devastating wars. Previously, Kwakwa worked on poverty reduction and economic management in the Bank's East Asia and Pacific division. From Vietnam, she reported on foreign direct investment during the 1997 Asian financial crisis and continued to monitor its effects there and in neighbouring Laos and Cambodia.

In 1999, Kwakwa joined the editorial team that prepared the Bank's annual World Development Report. She was later the Bank's lead economist for Nigeria, and often met former colleague (and now World Bank Managing Director) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (AAC Vol 1 No 6). Kwakwa then became Country Director for Rwanda.

The optimism over Vietnam's 2007 accession to the World Trade Organisation, which was part of a larger reform from planned economy to market, faded with the economic downturn of 2008. The World Bank hopes to attract US$1.7 billion in overseas development aid for 2009, though there will certainly be a reduction of foreign direct investment.

This month, it lowered its growth forecast for Vietnam from 6.5% to 5.5%. Vietnam is the largest borrower from the International Development Association, the Bank's lending arm that serves the poorest countries. Kwakwa will work with the government to establish creditworthiness, so that Vietnam is eligible for International Bank for Reconstruction and Development loans, which go to middle-income nations.