Ajay Chhibber joins UNDP as Director of Bureau for Asia, Pacific

New Delhi, Apr 9 (UNI) UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Mr Ajay Chhibber of India as Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Director of UNDP's Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific.

Mr Chhibber succeeds Mr Hafiz Pasha, who finished his assignment in December 2007.

Mr Chhibber will lead the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, a region which is now by far the most rapidly growing region in the world. Yet, while there is impressive progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), there remain significant problems of poverty, environmental constraints and equity.

The Bureau concentrates its efforts on supporting the Governments of the region in facing these challenges and consolidating the progress made.

Mr Chhibber has had a very diverse career at the World Bank for over 25 years covering both research and policy issues, and has worked across Asia.

Currently, he is the Country Director for Vietnam, where he manages over one billion US dollar in lending. He has previously been Director of the Independent Evaluation Group and a manager in the Eastern European and Asian Departments of the World Bank.

He was also Staff Director on the World Development Report in 1997 and has served as a Senior Economist at the World Bank.

He has published widely on development and policy issues.

Before joining the World Bank, Mr Chhibber was a consultant researcher for FAO and the International Food Policy Research Institute.

Earlier, he worked at the Indian Planning Commission and was also a lecturer in economics at the University of Delhi.

He holds a PhD from Stanford University and an MA from the Delhi School of Economics, a press release received here said.

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