Alahdad out, Saadat in

Change of highest-ranking official in World Bank’s Romanian Bureau. As of August, Pakistani-born Owaise Saadat will officially become World Bank’s resident representative in Bucharest. He is this way replacing Ziad Alahdad, whose four-year term in Romania is coming to an end. During his meeting with PM Adrian Nastase on Tuesday, Saadat admitted he had a difficult mission as WB representative, adding he trusted he would work well with the Romanian authorities. He said 2007, the deadline targeted by Romania for its EU accession, was his target, as well. Nastase said during the same meeting that the completion of the current agreement with the IMF and the conclusion of a new arrangement was one of the Government’s goals for the next period. He also presented the new World Bank resident the Government’s foreign policy priorities, which mainly consist in completing the accession negotiations with the EU by the end of next year and concluding the NATO accession agreement ratification process. Owaise Saadat has been with the World Bank for 27 years. He was World Bank country manager in Armenia and operations advisor in Kazakhstan, working the for bank’s Bureau for Central Asia. Ziad Alahdad is to become World Bank Institute operations advisor. ZF