Jim Yong Kim Takes Over World Bank WASHINGTON - The World Bank's new president, on his first day on the job, said on Monday that the institution would be open to offering technical assistance to crisis-plagued high-income countries like Greece. "There are many situations in which what our member countries want most of all is our technical expertise," said Jim Yong Kim, an American physician and global health expert, told reporters. There are so many sources of capital these days in the world that that's not going to be our role, but our role will be to provide technical assistance. In offering such assistance, the bank would not be disbursing loans or grants. Rather, it would act as a consultant, helping a government draft an infrastructure investment or poverty reduction plan, for instance. Still, Dr. Kim said that the bank would remain focused on its core goal of eradicating poverty around the world. "The primary mission, I think, of the World Bank in this crisis is to make sure that low- and middle-income countries are protected," he said, noting that the bank has invested more than $300 billion in poorer countries since the global conflagration hit. "I will work with our clients and partners to ensure that we are creating a new economic firewall: one that protects people in developing countries against shocks," Dr. Kim said in a statement released on Monday. I know from my work in poor communities around the world that when a crisis hits and no safety net is in place, the effects can be devastating. Dr. Kim is taking office at a worrisome moment for the global economy. Nearly every region of the world is experiencing a slowdown. Big emerging-market countries that helped propel the world out of the global recession - like China, India and Brazil - have cooled off. High-income countries like Japan and the United States have only meager growth. And Europe remains plagued by high unemployment, nonexistent growth and heavy debt loads. In a biannual global economic assessment released in June, the bank's economists warned of a "sharp deterioration in financial conditions" because of problems in the euro zone. It warned poor countries to brace themselves for any fallout, by cutting their debt exposure, for instance. Dr. Kim expressed concern about the bleak global economic picture. But he said that he had been "encouraged" by the progress that Europe had made in the last two weeks, agreeing to focus on growth at the Group of 20 summit meeting and moving toward a closer banking union last week. He said that the bank was well capitalized to help countries should the global slowdown transform into a global downturn. Global health experts cheered the White House's nomination of Dr. Kim, a co-founder of the nonprofit Partners in Health and most recently the head of Dartmouth College. The Obama administration chose him in part because of his work as a practitioner in global development. Previous heads of the institution had been bankers, politicians or foreign policy éminences grises. But some development experts criticized Washington's continued hold on the presidency of the major multilateral institution. Dr. Kim was a candidate in the first-ever contested election for the spot - with some countries throwing their support behind the Nigerian finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, or the Colombian central banker, José Antonio Ocampo. Still, the voting share of the United States and its allies on the board ensured Dr. Kim's selection. Dr. Kim has not yet articulated whether or how he wants to refocus the World Bank, which has been criticized for taking on too many different types of projects. Some have speculated that the Obama administration's selection of Dr. Kim indicates that it wants the institution to emphasize helping the poorest countries or focus on public health. "I'm going to take great interest in a wide variety of projects that we work on," Dr. Kim said. We are very much a client-driven organization. In other words, we have to respond to the priorities and the aspirations of our member countries. That's a critical piece of our work going forward.