THE World Bank Group (WBG) and Singapore yesterday signed an agreement to set up a new hub for knowledge and financial activities for Asia and beyond.

Mr Robert Zoellick, president of the WBG, said the Singapore hub will demonstrate the group’s commitment, not just to mutual learning, but also to pragmatic decentralisation.

“We expect this hub to grow by some 70 professional staff over the next three years,” he said.

“We are investing in Singapore as a knowledge economy and financial-services centre.”

This will be the first combined WBG office outside Washington able to offer products and services from across the WBG to its clients. The following are its key functions:

It will offer regional clients investment and advisory services from the International Finance Corporation, WBG’s private-sector arm. It will work with commercial banks and firms based here to offer emerging markets’ debt and equity investments to investors.
The WBG has a private-sector guarantee arm, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, which will help private Asian investors to invest in infrastructure, through issuing risk guarantees to equity sponsors, banks, funds, and other financial institutions.
WBG’s chief financial officer will move here, while its treasury, corporate-finance and riskmanagement departments as well as its information communications technology office will be represented here.
The bank’s chief economist for the East Asia Region, Mr Bert Hofman, will be based here and will be the director of the office.