By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The new International Monetary Fund (IMF) Resident Representative to Jamaica Bert van Selm has started duty in Kingston at the end of July.

According to the IMF, van Selm has been with the Fund since 2000, and has worked on country teams in Europe, Africa and Asia, as well as in the IMF’s Strategy, Policy, and Review Department in Washington, DC, USA.

The IMF said van Selm, a self-confessed avid soccer player, holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and is a prolific author. “His book The Economics of Soviet Break-Up is based on his PhD thesis, which was awarded the European Association for Comparative Economic Studies prize for the best thesis in the field of Comparative Economics,” the IMF said.

The IMF further affirmed that before van Selm joined its team, he was a lecturer in international economics at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, and also worked at the Dutch Ministry of Finance.

He replaces former IMF Resident Representative Gene Leon.