Mr. Klaus Rohland has assumed the position of the Country Director and Resident Representative of the World Bank in the Russian Federation

April 2, 2007, Moscow - Mr. Klaus Rohland has assumed the position of  the Country Director and Resident Representative of the World Bank in the Russian Federation.  After arrival Mr. Rohland remarked: “I am excited about the opportunity to work in Russia and impressed by the outstanding success the Government has achieved in  its macroeconomic policies.  I am committed to strengthen the Bank’s  capacities to contribute to regional development in the Federation, to deepening and strengthening private led development, and to helping the Government improve the provision of services in infrastructure and the social sectors. We also welcome Russia’s intent to work with the Bank to support other more needy countries in the World.”

Mr. Klaus Rohland, a German national, first joined the World Bank in 1981 as an advisor to the German Executive Director. Since that time, he has held a number of key positions in the World Bank.  Between 1985 and 1995, Mr. Roland worked with the German Government on international development assistance policies and their implementation. While working in Germany, he advised the German Government on development cooperation policy in various capacities in the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Office of the Federal Chancellor. Mr. Rohland’s career in the Bank has spanned a wide range of countries and positions. He has been involved in development work in South America, Eastern Europe, and most importantly in Asia, where he managed the World Bank Program in China in the mid nineties. 

His most recent posting was as the Bank’s Country Director for Vietnam. There, Mr. Rohland oversaw the implementation  of the World Bank’s largest concessional lending program  in the world and led a large scale advisory program, inter alia,   designed to prepare Vietnam to join the WTO, an event  that  eventually took place in late 2006.
 
Klaus Rohland graduated from Marburg University in Germany and holds a degree in
law and public administration. Mr. Klaus Rohland is married and has two children.

The previous Country Director for Russia, Mrs. Kristalina Georgieva  returned to the Bank’s headquarters in Washington, D.C . She was appointed as Deputy Vice-President, Sustainable Development, a recently established department that combines infrastructure development, agriculture, environment and social development with the central objective of integrating the Bank’s operations under the umbrella of promoting the underlying goal of sustainable development.