YEREVAN, April 16, /ARKA/. The World Bank Group President, Jim Yong Kim announced last week a series of measures aimed at strengthening the multilateral institution to enable it meet the evolving needs of clients.

According to news reports, this includes a $100 billion increase in the lending capacity of the Bank's lending arm for middle-income countries over the next decade, new innovations in financial management, and a boost in the institution's ability to provide private sector support.

This followed the record $52 billion replenishment of IDA, the World Bank's fund for the poorest, in December 2013.

Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in Washington, ahead of the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings, Kim outlined how the Bank was positioning itself to better achieve its goals of ending extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity for the lowest 40 per cent in developing countries.

"We now have the capacity to nearly double our annual lending to middle-income countries from $15 billion to $26 to $28 billion a year. This means that the World Bank's lending capacity will increase by $100 billion to roughly $300 billion over the next ten years," Kim said.

In addition to the previously announced $400 million in cost savings over the next three years that could be reinvested, Kim described a series of measures at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)--which provides financing, risk management products, and other financial services to middle-income countries--that have the potential to transform IBRD by substantially increasing its ability to serve its clients.

The move would allow IBRD's annual lending commitment capacity to expand immediately from the current $15 billion in annual lending to more than $25 billion per year.

Therefore, the Bank's clients over the next 10 years could see IBRD's capacity, in terms of the maximum loan book it can prudently support, increase from about $200 billion to nearly $300 billion, which would also boost the Bank's countercyclical crisis-response capacity. -0-