Is this corruption- Egyptian reformist minister becomes World Bank MD?

Egyptian minister becomes World Bank's Managing Director;

“Mahmoud Mohieldin has proven himself a tireless reformer whose work on economic and financial reform helped Egypt weather the global financial crisis. An outstanding young leader, his first hand experience of development and of the World Bank -- both as Minister and as World Bank Governor -will serve us well as we undertake our own reform program and scale-up our client focus,” said Zoellick.

No it's not. He was a regular feature on World Bank's PREM Weeks and other events. A PhD from Warwick, it's an excellent choice. Congratulations Mr.Mohieldin. A true practioner in every sense.

Related:
Interview with H. E. Mahmoud Mohieldin

We put specific timelines. We didn’t really hesitate to continue with the reforms despite the criticism at the beginning, and I have to admit that we are very lucky, because when we were conducting these reform measures, we were expecting that their impact on investment and growth was going to be taking at least three to four years. It actually took around two to three years, because of the benign emerging markets environment, and the fact that the economy at large was recovering from a long period of recession. And so with elements of recovery, a benign emerging markets environment, and credible economic policies, we managed to achieve what we have achieved so far...

It’s led by the minister of finance, with my membership, the minister of economic development, minister of trade and industry, governor of central bank.We meet every Monday evening.

On the Reform of Business Environment: The Case of Egypt

Videos:
An Egypt Case Study of Financial Sector Reform

PREM Week 2005: Session 05 - Why Do Economies Grow?

Internal Brain Drain: Why Gender Inclusion Matters for Growth

How to Reform the Business Environment

How to earn respect and be a great scholar

Stephen Malt's tributes to his mentor, Samuel P. Huntington;

Last but not least, Huntington was simply a great man. Not just because of his remarkable career as scholar, teacher, mentor, magazine-founder, academic administrator, foreign-policy practitioner, and public intellectual, but because he had a rare capacity to engage with ideas he didn’t share and to respect those who disagreed with him. I took issue with him on several occasions—and didn’t pull any punches when I did—his reaction was to answer my criticisms fairly and forcefully and then help recruit me to Harvard. Needless to say, this is not typical behavior in the thin-skinned world of academe. John Mearsheimer and I dedicated a book to him not because he agreed with our thesis (though some of his own writings contain similar warnings about the distorting influence that ethnic groups could have on U.S. foreign policy), but because his willingness to say what he thought even when it might be impolitic was an inspiration for anyone who tries to grapple with the complex political challenges of our era. I will miss him, and so will his admirers (and critics) around the world.

From an earlier tribute;

I was not Sam’s student, but came to know him first as an intellectual force through his writings, then as a rather intimidating presence when I was a research fellow at Harvard in the 1980s, and later as friend and eventual colleague. To me, Sam’s true greatness is not measured by his scholarly contributions alone—though they were vast—but by his deep commitment to the life of the mind and his conviction that scholars should focus their efforts on the core political and social problems of the day. His work was often (always?) controversial, because he invariably tackled big questions and wasn’t afraid to offer provocative and sometimes unfashionable answers. In a world where most academics shun controversy and thereby render themselves irrelevant, Sam stood out. He knew that writing about politics was not a popularity contest, and that spirited but civil debate was essential to a healthy democracy. And it was impossible not to be inspired by his dedication and discipline.

Perhaps most remarkably, Sam was among the most intellectually tolerant academics I have known. He held strong views and defended them vigorously, but unlike most people in my profession, he didn’t mind if you disagreed. I can testify to this personally: when his “Clash of Civilizations” thesis was first published in article form, I debated him on this topic at the annual meeting of the American Political Science and I subsequently wrote a sharply critical review of the book for Foreign Policy magazine. Because Sam always loved a good argument—particularly if it was about substance and not ad hominem—he never held this against me and we grew closer as a result. Indeed, he subsequently helped recruit me to Harvard and he and his wife Nancy made a special effort to welcome us here. One could hardly imagine a better role model.

Think About for the Day

It's time to redefine "pro-Israel";

Did U.S. policy reflect the people's will, even a little? Hardly. "Pro-Israel" groups went into overdrive, targeting any politicians or human rights organizations that dared to question what Israel was doing to the civilian population in Lebanon. The Bush administration backed Israel to the hilt and delayed a ceasefire resolution -- just as they are doing now -- in a futile attempt to give Israel time to eke out a military victory. Not to be outdone, Congress passed a resolution of support by a vote of 410-8, after deleting a clause from the initial draft that called for both sides to minimize harm to civilians. The result of all this "support" was a major setback for Israel, however, as the ill-conceived war undermined Lebanon’s fragile democracy and left Hezbollah stronger and more popular than before. Delaying the ceasefire also cost more Israeli and Lebanese lives.

And here's the real tragedy: giving Israel unconditional support wasn't a true act of friendship then and isn't a genuine act of friendship now; on the contrary, it's positively harmful to the long-term interests of the Jewish state. Those congressmen, senators, and other government officials who are falling over themselves to defend Israel's behavior, along with the usual apologists like Marty Peretz and Alan Dershowitz, are no friends of Israel, though they undoubtedly think they are. Their support helped Israel shoot itself in the foot in 2006, and they are helping it do the same thing today.

Pundits like Walter Russell Mead are fond of claiming that the U.S.-Israel "special relationship" reflects shared religious traditions and the will of the American people. The evidence suggests otherwise: although most Americans support Israel’s existence and have more sympathy for them than they have for the Palestinians, they are not demanding that U.S. leaders back Israel no matter what it does. But that's what American politicians reflexively do, even though it encourages Israel to continue immoral and self-destructive policies (including the continued expansion of settlements) and contributes to Arab and Islamic anger at the United States.

The Future of Middle East?

Israeli Girl

Palestinian Boy

Irrationality in Middle East

A Happy New Year???

“These people are nothing but thugs,” Gordon Johndroe, White House spokesman, said yesterday in comments to reporters in Crawford, Texas, where President George W. Bush is vacationing at his ranch. “Israel is going to defend itself against people like Hamas.”

via Angry Arab

Dubai Fact of the Day

Despite the increasing numbers of women moving to the gulf countries, the labor migration patterns of the last 20 years have left the Emirates with a male-female ratio that is more skewed than anywhere else in the world; in the 15-to-64 age group, there are more than 2.7 men for every woman.

-Some Arab Women Find Freedom in the Skies

Quality of Fiscal Data in Libya

The fiscal information system remains fragmented and inconsistent with international standards, since it was designed for administrative reporting under the government finance law, rather than for purposes of providing timely statistical information for economic planning and analysis. However, there has been significant improvement in this area. Monthly and quarterly data for key components of revenue and expenditure are being reported to staff on a regular basis.

To improve the fiscal data, the 2005 STA mission recommended: (i) adopting centralized management of all budgetary central government accounts at the ministry of finance; (ii) expanding coverage of central government accounts by including extrabudgetary and local government operations; (iii) developing GFS metadata on concepts, scope, classifications, basis of recording, data sources, and statistical techniques for posting on the GDDS website; (iv) adopting the Fund’s 2001 Government Finance Statistics Manual (GFSM) as a coherent methodological framework for the production and dissemination of monthly, quarterly, and annual fiscal data. This would promote the recording of all assets and liabilities on accrual basis and at market values. To this end, STA has trained two CBL staff, one in 2007 and one in 2008.

Source: Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya: 2008 Article IV Consultation-Staff Report

Jordan: Technical Assistance, 2000–2008

Fiscal

• May 2000 Framework for managing nontreasury accounts

• September 2000 Oil pricing mechanism
• January–June 2002 Pension reform
• January–September 2002 GST reform
• November 2002 Macrofiscal capacity and treasury single account
• February, October 2003 Revenue administration reform
• June, August, December 2003 Peripatetic advisor on single treasury account
• February, June, October 2004 Peripatetic advisor on revenue administration reform
• February, May 2004 Public expenditure management
• August 2004–June 2005 Resident expert in macrofiscal management
• February 2005 Distributional effects of replacing oil subsidies
• February–March 2005 Revenue administration reform
• April 2005 Fiscal ROSC
• February, May 2006 Public financial management
• April–August 2006 Expert visits on revenue administration reform
• October–November 2006 Revenue administration inspection visit
• March–April, July, December 2007Revenue administration reform (METAC)

Monetary and Financial

• January–February, April–May 2001, International reserve management
• April–May 2008, Debt management strategy

Statistical

• July 2000 National accounts statistics
• January–February 2002 Report on the Observation of Standards and Codes—Data module

• December 2003 Follow-up on Report on the Observation of Standards and Codes—Data module
• Oct. 2003–Jan. 2004, Mar–May 2004 Balance of payments statistics
• April–May 2004 Government finance statistics
• December 2006 National accounts statistics
• October–November 2006 SDDS Assessment mission
• July 2007 Follow-up on SDDS/Government Finance Statistics

Other

• March 2008 Financial programming workshop

Source: Jordan: 2008 Article IV Consultation - Staff Report

For Discussion: IMF has done a relatively better job at capacity development than other IFIs, especially the peripatetic model has been quiet effective. Discuss.

Related; IMF to Enhance Impact of Its Technical Assistance

In the IMF's FY2008 alone, close to 200 "person-years" (or about 52,000 working days) of assistance was delivered to IMF member countries