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p. 3 of 5 BACK | NEXT Board of Directors' Report: 2001 Year in Review Strengthening the framework Broadening partnerships General operations Board committees

Annual Report 2001

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Broadening partnerships

President’s visits

The President carried ADB’s message to several DMCs and international conferences in 2001. As the first head of a multilateral development bank to visit Pakistan after 11 September, Mr. Chino saw firsthand the effects of isolation on Afghanistan‘s people. He was able to draw on this experience when he later traveled to Washington, DC for a Senior Officials’ Meeting on Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan, cochaired by Japan and the United States.

Also in 2001, Mr. Chino attended the Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Batam, Indonesia—where he reiterated ADB’s strong commitment to supporting the Government’s efforts for reform and poverty reduction—and visited four of the Central Asian republics—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. He opened ADB resident missions in Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mongolia, and Philippines and participated in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Finance Ministers’ Meeting in Suzhou, People’s Republic of China.

Directors’ visits

A group of Directors visited Cambodia and Viet Nam from 24 February to 10 March; and another group traveled to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan from 27 August to 12 September.

The visits provided the Directors an opportunity to better understand the development conditions in the DMCs and to discuss priorities and constraints with senior government officials, civil society, NGOs, and others from the perspective of the DMCs concerned. The visits also allowed the Directors to look at specific ADB-supported development projects, and review the implementation status and challenges being faced by the DMCs. The Directors assessed agency coordination, focusing in particular on those areas where duplication could be avoided, and provided stakeholders with a better understanding of the work ADB does in each DMC.

In Cambodia and Viet Nam, the Directors recommended that ADB focus on increasing loan disbursements to strengthen implementation, and reducing the number of regions and sectors in the CSP reports. The Directors noted the Vietnamese authorities’ concern regarding the use of consultants in projects and recommended that this be studied. They noted that the technical assistance program should be demand-driven and developed in full consultation with DMC governments. The Directors also recommended that ADB consider establishing a credit line for small- and medium-sized enterprises as requested by the private sector.

The Directors noted the similar development challenges faced by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan, especially those relating to their landlocked geography and their transition from centrally planned to market economies. At the same time, each country faces unique challenges. The Directors concluded that, while regional cooperation among the three countries is important, a common approach to development challenges cannot be applied to these countries simply because of their location. ADB’s country focus is, therefore, particularly relevant. The Directors also noted the willingness of each DMC to take ownership of its respective development programs, from which the Directors concluded the importance of ensuring that ADB program designs and procedures are flexible. The distance of the DMCs from ADB headquarters highlighted the need for resident missions in each country; the Directors noted that most major multilateral financial institutions already have missions in all three countries. The importance of ADB’s mission in Kazakhstan was noted, and the need to establish missions in Azerbaijan and Tajikistan to facilitate more effective aid coordination and program planning was stressed.

Funding agencies

ADB’s cooperation and coordination with other funding agencies was strengthened in 2001. ADB, World Bank, and the United Nations Development Programme prepared the Preliminary Needs Assessment for Afghanistan’s recovery and reconstruction for presentation at the Ministerial Conference on the Reconstruction of Afghanistan in Tokyo in January 2002. The Japanese Government and ADB established the Japan Fund for Information and Communication Technology to facilitate advances in technology and communications and to bridge the growing digital divide in Asia and the Pacific. ADB signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Administrative Arrangements with the World Bank and also helped develop the Comprehensive Development Framework and Poverty Reduction strategy papers.

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