News and Events

printer friendly version

Statement by President Chino at the Breakfast with Donor Community

by
Tadao Chino
President
Asian Development Bank

Suva, Fiji Islands
19 June 2004

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Good Morning. Thank you very much for joining me for breakfast today. I am very happy to have this opportunity to meet with you and exchange views on strategies for development of the Fiji Islands and the region. ADB is now preparing a new Pacific Strategy to provide a framework for ADB operations from 2005 to 2009.

We are consulting widely, and our consultations have included the donor community. Your continued input will help to shape ADB’s assistance through jointly-financed projects, common policy dialogue with the Government, and institutional ties through our Board of Directors. We share the common goal of promoting development in the Fiji Islands and the region. Discussions such as these bring clarity to our efforts. With the establishment of ADB's South Pacific Subregional Office, we hope to strengthen our partnerships and collaboration with all development partners.

As a leading multilateral institution, ADB is in a position to foster coordination and harmonization of development programs in the region. In this respect, ADB and other donors have a crucial role to play in assisting the Pacific Developing Member Countries in preparing their national strategic development plans to enhance economic growth and development.

All development partners and international community must also continue their support particularly for smaller countries in their efforts to fight poverty. In this context, I am pleased that ADB’s donor shareholders had recently agreed to a total of $7 billion replenishment of our concessional fund, the Asian Development Fund. A portion of ADF resources are now allocated for grants, which will enable us to support poverty reduction programs in Asia’s poorest developing countries, without increasing their debt burden.

Since I am in the company of such distinguished members of the diplomatic and international community, I look forward to hearing your views on the priorities for economic reform and on ways to better support— perhaps even accelerate—the Government’s development programs and poverty reduction in the region. Thank you.