Catalog

Office Opened in Suva
ADB Review [ November 2004 ]

ADB has strengthened its operations in the Pacific with the opening of a regional office in Suva

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has opened a regional office in Suva, Fiji Islands, reaffirming ADB’s support for sustained economic growth and commitment to reducing poverty in the South Pacific region.

Fiji Islands Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and ADB President Tadao Chino inaugurated the new office on 18 June 2004.

OPEN FOR BUSINESS ADB President Tadao Chino and Fiji Islands Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase at the inauguration

The South Pacific Subregional Office (SPSO) will eventually have a total of 14 staff members, including regional and Fijian residents. This will help boost ADB’s role in poverty reduction in its operations covering the Fiji Islands, as well as Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu.

The office will also enable ADB to become more responsive to the development needs of the South Pacific region.

“The new office affirms our shared and long-term commitment of reducing poverty through responding to the development needs of the poor in this region,” says Mr. Chino.

“SPSO will bring ADB closer to the people of the South Pacific and allow usto work side by side in planning our assistance programs for each country in the region.”

He says the subregional office will play a key role in ensuring that ADB’s ongoing assistance is being implemented efficiently and is achieving its development objectives.

Many of ADB’s South Pacific developing member countries (DMCs) consist of small island states whose economies are faced with the challenges of smallness, isolation, and fragmentation. ADB supports each country’s development plans and objectives to achieve sustained economic growth and improve quality of life.

ADB’s new strategy for the Pacific aims to respond to priorities of the poor in the region by creating jobs through enhanced private sector development and improving access and quality of social services, such as health, education, water supply, and sanitation.

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