The World Bank and Luxembourg

Luxembourg is a founding member of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). It is also a member of the International Development Association (since 1964), the International Finance Corporation (1956), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (1991) and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (1970).

Representation

Like all 184 member countries of the World Bank Group, Luxembourg is represented in its governing councils by a Governor and an Alternate Governor who, with their peers, hold ultimate decision-making power. The Minister of Treasury and Budget, Mr. Frieden, serves as Luxembourg's Governor for the World Bank and Mr. Jean Guill, Director of the Treasury at the Ministry of the Treasury, serves as Alternate Governor.

Because these officers meet only once a year to decide on key actions such as admitting new members or changing the authorized capital stocks, they delegate responsibility for overseeing the day-to-day business of the institutions to their designated representatives on the Executive Board. These Board members, called Executive Directors, reside in Washington and meet regularly throughout the year (normally at least twice a week) to review and act on lending operations, new policy directions, and financial matters. In keeping with the World Bank's information disclosure policy, the monthly Board Calendar is now a public document, also available in the 'Executive Boards' link, here.

The 24-member Executive Board is made up of five Executive Directors who are appointed by the five largest shareholders (in alphabetical order, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States) and 19 others who are elected by groups of countries to represent their interests.

Luxembourg shares its Board representation with, Belarus, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Kazakhstan, The Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and Turkey.

 

The Executive Director for this group is  Mr. Gino Alzetta from Belgium. For more information, click here.

Shares & Voting Power

With 0.11% of IBRD shares, Luxembourg is in 82^nd place among IBRD shareholders and As of June 30, 2003, its cumulative contributions to IDA totaled $81.3 million, ranking it 16^th among European Part I cumulative IDA contributors. (These figures are drawn from the respective institutions' Annual Reports.)