Ajay Banga

Now, over the next 10 to 15 years, 1.2 billion young people will arrive at the job market projected to offer only about 400 million jobs.

That's warning from the World Bank president, Ajay Banga.

Making remarks at the 2026 World Bank International Monetary Fund annual meetings in Bangkok, Thailand, the World Bank President Ajay Banga said the situation will impact developing countries such as Ghana as artificial intelligence grows.

I believe that the bank's entire focus has to be on jobs for a very simple reason.

1.2 billion young people.

Thailand is pursuing about $200 million USD from a World Bank loan to finance solar power installations and energy efficiency improvements in public buildings and industrial areas.

The proposed funding follows discussions between Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kuntek Niti and World Bank Group President Ajay Banga during the 2026 IMF World Bank Annual Meetings.

The loan would be channeled through the Export-Import Bank of Thailand, with a guarantee from the Finance Ministry, and initial projects would focus on Bangkok and industrial estates.

Energy service companies would cover the upfront costs of upgrades, allowing participating schools, healthcare facilities, and government offices to repay the investment gradually through long-term service fees.

Closing that gap is both an urgent human challenge and an opportunity to invest in the world's future.

World Bank Group President and former MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga joins us to discuss why jobs are at the heart of the World Bank's mission and how we can all participate because the future of our planet depends on whether the next generation has a future of its own.

From Ballard Studios in the nation's capital, a special edition of 13th & Park.

I never dreamed going into the White House you'd risk your freedom.

World Bank's Banga sets goal of quintupling critical minerals financing in five years.

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World Bank President Ajay Banga on Friday said the development lender has set a goal of quintupling its critical minerals business in five years and has identified twenty countries that it can partner with on critical minerals development projects.

Banga revealed the new goal in prepared remarks to a plenary session at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok.

"In critical minerals, we plan to quintuple our business in five years," Banga said.

"This week, we launched our first country compacts with MDB partners to build local industries and keep more jobs and value at home." The World Bank's new metals and minerals implementation plan is targeting nineteen billion dollars in critical minerals financing over the fiscal twenty-twenty-six to twenty-thirty period, compared with three-point-six billion dollars in the fiscal twenty-twenty-one to twenty-twenty-five period.

Critical minerals development is an area where the United States, the World Bank's largest shareholder, has called for the bank to devote more financing resources.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier this week that he wanted the bank to play a bigger role in enabling critical minerals mining and processing capacity through project de-risking and finance and investment in enabling infrastructure.