The Chennai centre of World Bank, which was started in 2001 as an exploratory project, is now a ‘strategic’ entity for the group. The centre was started with 70 employees in finance and accounting, but touched upon almost every corporate function of the group, said Sunil Kumar, Centre Head. World Bank.

To name a few, the Centre has big finance and accounting practice, IT, HR, procurement, global corporate real estate facilities; treasury and other finance, he said. “We have 1,500 staff and contractors working from three facilities in Chennai, Kumar,” said at the GCC Next Summit 24 organised by Guidance Tamil Nadu and KreateWorks on Wednesday.

The Chennai centre is the largest office outside of bank’s headquarters. That’s a big recognition for the centre; a big recognition for India because the group chose India as its destination, and within India it chose Tamil Nadu. This was made possible because of the talent ecosystem, he said.

“Whenever we set up our offices outside of headquarters, we look at support from both from the federal government as well as State government. Support from both the governments was of immense help to us. And that’s the reason that we have been able to grow and it has become a strategic entity for the World Bank Group in headquarters,” he said.

The bank’s corporate teams are globally spread across Washington and Chennai. The bank has another centre in Eastern Europe. “We are now so integrated across the globe that we are one team sitting across different locations; able to deliver on the core mandate supporting operations of the bank,” he said.

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