YEREVAN, November 18. / ARKA /. Henry Kerali, the World Bank's Regional Director for the South Caucasus, has arrived in Armenia following the WB’s approval of a new Country Partnership Strategy for Armenia (CPS) for 2014-2017.

The CPS was approved by the World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors earlier this month. The four-year strategy is a framework document outlining the World Bank Group’s support to the country.

The strategy is anchored in the Armenia Development Strategy 2025 and places private sector-led job creation at the center of the World Bank Group’s response. It also stresses the need for improvement of labor productivity in the agricultural sector that supports the livelihood of over one million of the rural population, and would lead to higher economic growth, shared prosperity, and faster poverty reduction in both urban and rural areas.

The strategy proposes financial support of US$ 873 million over the next four years, with access to the International Development Association (IDA), International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and International Finance Corporation (IFC) funding.

In Yerevan Mr. Kerali and head of WB Yerevan Office, Jean Michel Happi, will convene a news conference on November 19.

Henry Kerali is the World Bank's Regional Director for the South Caucasus, effective July 1, 2012, based in Georgia. Kerali has worked in different regions of the world including Latin America, Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and Europe and Central Asia (ECA), and in his last position he oversaw the Bank's transport program in the ECA Region as a Sector Manager.

Prior to joining the Bank in 2003, Mr. Kerali was a Professor at the University of Birmingham, England, specializing in the development of transport infrastructure. He led the research of developed economic cost-benefit models for assessing the feasibility of infrastructure investments.

Mr. Kerali, a dual Ugandan and UK national, was educated in Uganda where he studied Civil Engineering. He holds an MSc and a PhD from the University of Birmingham in England. He has over 100 publications in various books, journals and Bank reports. -0-