E T Temporary

**E T Temporary**

Job #:
req30854
Organization:
World Bank
Sector:
Administration/Office Support
Grade:
ET2
Term Duration:
1 year 0 months
Recruitment Type:
Local Recruitment

**Location**:
Bangkok,Thailand
Required Language(s):
Thai, English
Preferred Language(s):
Closing Date:
1/2/2025 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Description

**World Bank Group Context**

Innovation and partnership bond the five institutions of the World Bank Group (WBG): the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA), which together form the World Bank; the International Finance Corporation (IFC); the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA); and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The World Bank Group is one of the world's largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries. It uses financial resources and extensive experience to help our client countries to reduce poverty, increase economic growth, and improve quality of life. To ensure that countries can access the best global expertise and help generate cutting-edge knowledge, the World Bank Group is constantly seeking to improve the way it works. Key priorities include delivering measurable results, promoting openness and transparency in development, and improving access to development information and data.

**Regional Context**

The East Asia and Pacific Region presents a dramatic illustration of the principal global dynamics, opportunities and risks of the 21st century. After making the fastest progress in growth and poverty reduction of any region around the world in the last quarter century, some countries in the region are poised to become middle-income, and others are preparing to join the small group of high-income countries. Such rapid transformation is leading to the largest shift in rural-to-urban population in human history, generating rising inequality within and across countries, while leaving some countries, sub-national regions and groups behind. The continuing global financial crisis also threatens the sustainability of the gains with countries across the region being forced to address the resulting impacts on macroeconomic stability, economic growth, employment and poverty.

**Unit Context**

The BMPT Country Management Unit (CMU), manages the World Bank's programs in Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand, four dynamic countries in Southeast Asia. There is considerable variation in the program across the four countries - the Philippines continues as an IBRD Borrower with a strong analytical and technical assistance program; Thailand has a new and growing RAS program and a number of trust funded operations; Malaysia is the home of a Malaysia-government financed WBG Knowledge and Research Hub and an established RAS program; and Brunei is a high-income country with an emerging RAS program. The common thread is the importance of the knowledge partnership among the Bank and the host governments and other partners. This knowledge partnership is vibrant and innovative and has exciting potential to bring the development experience of all four countries to the

**Thailand Context**:
Over the last four decades, Thailand has made remarkable progress in social and economic development, moving from a low-income to an upper middle-income country in less than a generation. As such, Thailand has been a widely cited development success story, with sustained strong growth and impressive poverty reduction. Thailand's economy grew at an average annual rate of 7.5% in the boom years of 1960-1996 and 5% during 1999-2005 following the Asian Financial Crisis. This growth created millions of jobs that helped pull millions of people out of poverty. Gains along multiple dimensions of welfare have been impressive: more children are getting more years of education, and virtually everyone is now covered by health insurance while other forms of social security have expanded.

However, the growth prospects from the export-led model that not long ago powered so much of Thailand's economic growth seem to have diminished significantly, owing to a stagnation in productivity. Average growth in total factor productivity (TFP) stagnated from a high of 3.6% per annum during the early 2000s to just 1.3% during 2009-2017. Private investment declined from more than 40% in 1997 to 16.9% of GDP in 2019, while foreign direct investment flows and participation in global value chains have shown signs of stagnation.

Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a blow to the economy, aggravating the structural challenges. In 2020, the economy contracted by 6.1%. This is sharply steeper than the decline that occurred during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (0.3% in 2008) and second only to the 7.2% contraction in 1998, the sharpest full-year economic contraction in the past 25 years. A rapid phone survey by the World Bank implemented from April to June 2021 estimated that more than