U.S. President George W. Bush (L) shakes hands with former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick (R) after announcing that Zoellick will take over as World Bank President from Paul Wolfowitz, in the Roosevelt Room of White House in Washington May 30, 2007. [Photo: REUTERS]

He made his claim to fame originally as the US Trade Representative. However, he's now been tapped once again by the Bush Administration to take on a key role, and help put out fires started by his predecessor. This week US President George W. Bush announced that former US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick has been tapped to replace outgoing and embattled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz. So how is the rest of the world going to view this potential replacement?  And what direction will he take the World Bank? 

Ni hao, your listening to  People In the Know, your window into the world around you, online at www.crienglish.com here on China Radio International.  In this edition of the show, we'l talk about Zoellick and his potential new role as President of the World Bank.  So let's get started.

First, we delve into the Robert Zoellick appointment as the head of the World Bank from a political perspective.  For this, we're joined by Dr. Bowden Brett with the Center for International Governance and Justice with Australia National University in Canberra.

(Dialogue with Brent)

We're going to take a short break.  When we come back, we'll talk about the World Bank changes from an economic perspective.

Ni hao, you're listening to  People In the Know, your window into the world around you, online at www.crienglish.com here on China Radio International.  I'm Paul James in Beijing.  In this edition of the show, we're talking about the Bush Administration's choice of Robert Zoellick, the former US Trade Representative, to take over from Paul Wolfowitz as the President of the World Bank.  For an economic perspective on this, we'e joined now by Professor Kenneth Louie, Economics professor from Pennsylvania State, who's currently teaching in Nanjing.

(Dialogue with Louie)

And with that, we close out this edition of  People In the Know, online at www.crienglish.com here on China Radio International. Questions or comments for us can be sent to crieng@crifm.com. For Executive Director Wang Lei and Producer Lin Lin, I'm Paul James in Beijing.  Enjoy your Friday and have a good weekend.