Catalog

Fresh Start
ADB Review [ July - August 2004 ]

‘Business as usual’ is not good enough for the Pacific, ADB President says

JEJU, REPUBLIC OF KOREA

Fresh ideas are needed on development in the Pacific, as a “business as usual” approach will not produce results, ADB President Tadao Chino told a meeting of Pacific Governors of ADB. Speaking on the eve of the 37th Annual Meeting of ADB’s Board of Governors in Jeju, Mr. Chino said the Pacific region did not benefit from strong growth in the 1990s.

“As the global environment now regains its strength, it is vital that the Pacific become engaged more successfully than in the past,” he said, calling poverty the most serious development issue in the Pacific.

“We urgently need to accelerate job creation for Pacific youth, and to ensure that we can provide adequate social services, especially education. To do this, economic growth in the Pacific over the next decade will need to improve substantially.”

“It is vital that the Pacific become engaged more successfully than in the past"

President Tadao Chino, ADB

At the meeting, Pacific developing member country (DMC) delegates expressed appreciation for ADB’s efforts to move closer to its clients in the Pacific by establishing new offices in Port Moresby, Suva, and Sydney.

The meeting’s discussion also provided feedback on the draft Pacific Strategy (2005–2009). The delegates broadly endorsed the two themes of private sector-based job creation and improvement in basic services delivery. They noted that economic growth was a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for achieving poverty reduction.

The Pacific delegation congratulated Mr. Chino for a successful conclusion of the Asian Development Fund (ADF) replenishment exercise. They noted that the new technical assistance grants were particularly important for the Pacific DMCs, where ADB’s policy advice and capacity-building assistance were highly appreciated. The delegates endorsed the suggestion that ADB’s performance in the Pacific should be measured by results on the ground and not mainly by lending volume.

The Pacific DMCs also commended ADB for building stronger partnerships through meaningful participatory approaches. In their view, this would ensure full ownership by the Pacific DMCs of ADB’s assistance programs and would allow ADB and the DMCs in the Pacific to work “hand in hand.”

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