The World Bank Group was established in 1945 and consists of International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Development Association (IDA) and International Finance Corporation (IFC). Mr. James D. Wolfensohn is the President.

China is a founding member of the World Bank, but for many years after 1949, the Taiwan authorities illegally occupied China's seat in the Bank. On 14 April 1980, the World Bank declared in a statement that since the day when the People's Republic of China represented China in IBRD, IDA and IFC, the three agencies would develop relations only with the People's Republic of China. Since then, China has participated in every Annual Meeting of the Bank. China's share in the Bank is 44,779, which is 4.4799 billion Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and equals USD5.4043 billion (each share has a par value of 0.1 million 1974 SDRs). China's voting power in the Bank is 45,049, which is 2.81% of total votes. China forms a separate constituency in the Bank and appoints its own Executive Director. The present Executive Director is Mr. Zhu Xian.

Up to the end of June 2000, the World Bank had committed nearly USD34.129 billion of loans to China with 226 programs involved.

The joint IMF / World Bank Annual Meeting was held in Prag from 26 to 28 September 2000. Mr. Xiang Haicheng, Minister of Finance and Governor of the World Bank, and Mr. Dai Xianglong, Governor of People's Bank of China and Governor of IMF participated in the Annual Meeting as heads of the Chinese delegation. In addition, the Chinese delegation participated as "special invitee" in the G24 meeting. Due to the ?9.11? terrorist attack, the joint IMF/World Bank Annual Meeting of 2001 was cancelled. The 63th and 64th meetings of the Development Committee of the IMF and the World Bank were held in April and November respectively.