YEREVAN, September 10. / ARKA /. Laura E. Bailey, the World Bank’s Country Manager for Armenia since September 1, 2014 met today with Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan, who serves also as territorial minister, promising to bring to Armenia World Bank’s best experience and help expand cooperation between Armenia and the World Bank.

Ms. Bailey was quoted by the territorial ministry as saying in a press release that she was glad to take up as head of World Bank Yerevan Office.

The Deputy Prime Minister congratulated Ms. Bailey on assuming office and wished her every success in her future endeavors. According to Gevorgyan, WB is one of the largest partners of Armenia, with which it has built constructive and effective relationships.

He said the content of WB-financed programs is changing being now focused primarily at improving the efficiency of the economy and public administration.

During the meeting that was also attended by the World Bank Regional Director for the South Caucasus Henry Kerala, the parties discussed the current and future programs implemented with the assistance of the World Bank.

Armenia joined the World Bank in 1992 and IDA in 1993. As of early August 2014, both these structures have provided Armenia with about $1.962 billion in aid.

Ms. Bailey has held field posts in large middle-income and transition countries, such as India and Indonesia, as well as in small post-conflict countries, like Timor Leste. Prior to her recent position as the WB Country Manager in Papua New Guinea (from April 2009 to July 2014) she served as Senior Operations Specialist in the Operations Policy and Country Services vice-presidency of the World Bank; her responsibilities from 2005 to 2009 included launching partnership initiatives across multilateral and bilateral agencies, leading operational inputs to reform of Bank policies related to ‘rapid response’ operations, and providing support to a wide range of country teams across three regions.

Prior to joining the World Bank in 2005, Ms. Bailey worked for 16 years in economic development projects across countries in Asia, Africa, and Central America, and before that was active for three years in organizational development for the private sector in San Francisco, California, USA, during the technology boom of the mid-1980s.

Ms. Bailey, a US citizen, holds a Master of Public Policy degree from Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government with concentrations in international trade and international development. -0-