Guangzhe Chen, a Chinese national, is the Regional Director for Infrastructure in the South Asia Region at the World Bank. He provides leadership and oversees the formulation and implementation of the knowledge and financing program in energy, transport and digital development in the region covering Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The regional department has a portfolio of about 63 projects amounting to approximately $18 billion.

Prior to his current position, Mr. Chen was the World Bank’s Global Director of the Transport Global Practice from November 2018 to June 2020. He was also the Senior Director for the World Bank’s Water Global Practice from October 2016 to October 2018. Before that he served as World Bank Country Director for Ethiopia, in Addis Ababa, and subsequently for Southern Africa, covering Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, based in Pretoria. He started at the World Bank as a task team leader and then sector manager in the transport sector, followed by serving as a sector manager in the urban, water and disaster risk management.

An economist by training, Mr. Chen has over 25 years of international experience in the field of sustainable development, infrastructure finance and management with the World Bank Group and the Asian Development Bank.

Mr. Chen holds a graduate degree in Economics from Harvard University, USA, and B.A. in

Economics from Zhongshan (Sun Yat-Sen) University, Guangzhou, China.