The World Bank is pleased to announce the appointment of Ozan Sevimli as the new World Bank Country Manager for Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, effective August 2, 2021. He will succeed Jan-Peter Olters who was in this position since April 2017.
Ozan Sevimli has worked for the World Bank in several positions since 2005 across Europe and Central Asia, Africa and the Latin America and the Caribbean regions. Most recently, between 2019 and 2021, he was the World Bank’s Resident Representative for Jamaica and Guyana, responsible for overseeing a portfolio of about $500 million.
Prior to this assignment, from 2016 to 2019, Mr. Sevimli served as the Program Coordinator for the South Caucasus unit of the World Bank based in Tbilisi, Georgia. Before that, he was the Senior Strategy and Operations Officer in the Vice President’s office for the Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank, based in the headquarters, in Washington, D.C. In that post, he supported the Vice President and the Director of Strategy in the development and implementation of the regional strategy and portfolio, as well as corporate priorities.
Between 2005 and 2012, Mr. Sevimli worked in the World Bank’s Operations Policy and Country Services departments, as well as the Africa Regional department as a labor economist. Before joining the World Bank, he was a labor market specialist at the German Employment Agency. Mr. Sevimli holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas (USA) and a Master’s degree in Labor Economics from the University of Applied Sciences of Mannheim (Germany).
“I am delighted to start my assignment as Country Manager for Tajikistan and Turkmenistan and look forward to continuing our strong collaboration with our government counterparts, development partners, the civil society and citizens of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan,” said Ozan Sevimli. “A top priority for me in the coming months will be to ensure that the World Bank continues to provide the best possible support to these two countries through their post-pandemic recovery and efforts directed at restoring their economies, protecting human lives and strengthening the healthcare systems.”
Since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, the World Bank’s support to Tajikistan aimed at tackling the COVID-19 pandemic and protecting the poorest households has totaled $32.5 million, which includes $8.63 million for vaccination of priority populations groups against COVID-19. In Turkmenistan, the World Bank recently approved a $20 million loan to support the country’s efforts in strengthening the health system and mitigating the impacts of the pandemic.
Over the last four years the World Bank’s financial and analytical support in Tajikistan has grown by three times from $366 million in fiscal year 2017 to over $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2021, almost entirely grant-financed, proving strong commitment to support Tajikistan’s transition to a new growth model led by investment and exports in line with the National Development Strategy up to 2030. The World Bank’s country program in Tajikistan currently comprises 24 projects with a net commitment of $1.2 billion including 19 national and five regional projects that focus on energy sector and tax reforms, improving transport connectivity and trade, investing in education, early childhood development, disaster risk management, water supply and sanitation, agriculture and response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Turkmenistan the main focus of the World Bank remains the support is transfer of global knowledge and provision of advisory services and other technical assistance, mainly, through Reimbursable Advisory Service (RAS) program.