Jim Yong Kim will visit education initiatives with President Ollanta Humala in the Pasco region. His trip is part of the “Road to Lima” program in advance of the World Bank Group’s Annual Meetings in Lima in October.
LIMA, May 6, 2015 - The President of the World Bank Group (WBG) will visit Peru on May 7th, 2015, to observe the country’s progress delivering quality education to poor and vulnerable students. President Kim will travel with President Ollanta Humala and Education Minister Jaime Saavedra to the Pasco region to meet with recipients of “Beca18” scholarships and students at a high-performance school in Chontabamba in Oxapampa Province. President Kim and President Humala will give statements to the press upon completing their visit to the school.
High-performance schools offer outstanding poor students the opportunity to enter a boarding institution that provides quality educational instruction and resources to develop their skills. The Beca 18 scholarship program helps low-income youth access higher education. Both initiatives provide disadvantaged students new opportunities to compete in an increasingly global labor market.
President Kim’s visit is part of the “Road to Lima” program taking place in the lead up to the Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Lima, Peru, this October. The Road to Lima is a knowledge sharing initiative involving conferences and other activities that highlight development milestones that are essential for emerging economies in the 21st century, from equitable growth, quality education and jobs to efforts to address citizen insecurity. President Kim will return to Lima for the meetings.
This is Dr. Kim’s second visit to Peru as President of the World Bank Group. In June 2013, he traveled to Lamay in the Cusco Region where he emphasized the importance of quality education to ending extreme poverty and increasing opportunities for all in Peru and in Latin America. President Kim, an infectious disease physician, worked extensively in Peru early in his career. He aimed to provide top quality health services to poor communities near Lima. His practice included a focus on patients suffering from multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.
