PN Report
BANGKOK: World Bank Group President Ajay Banga told the 2026 Annual Meetings plenary that over the next 10 to 15 years, 1.2 billion young people will enter a job market offering only about 400 million jobs. He said the Bank is working to make scarce resources go further while helping countries create jobs at scale, by bringing together public finance, private investment, philanthropy and technology around each country’s needs.
Banga said reforms have cut project preparation time from 19 months to nine and created over $100 billion in extra IBRD lending capacity over a decade. Private capital mobilised rose from about $35 billion in FY22 to $112 billion last year, though mobilisation in low-income countries stayed flat. A new MSME strategy aims to reach the hardest-to-serve economies.
He highlighted progress on Mission 300, which has brought electricity to 59 million Africans so far against a 2030 target of 300 million, along with efforts in water, agriculture, health, critical minerals and economic corridors. He also contrasted “big AI” with practical “small AI” tools that can help farmers, teachers and health workers.
Looking ahead, six multilateral development banks are creating common ways to package and transfer investments to pension funds and insurers, aiming to build an emerging-market development asset class. “A job is dignity,” Banga said, calling the jobs gap a projection, not a destiny.
