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Water Financing Program Conference

Conference Overview Remarks by
Arjun Thapan
Chair, ADB Water Committee
Deputy Director General, Southeast Asia Department
Asian Development Bank

26 September 2006
Manila, Philippines

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. On behalf of the Asian Development Bank and as Chair of the ADB Water Committee, I would like to welcome you to ADB Headquarters and the Philippines. I would like to assure you that the next two and a half days are going to be informative, productive and enjoyable.

Before we take a break, then move on to the real business at hand with this conference, I’d like to just take a few minutes to give you an overview of the conference. This should put us in the right frame of mind for the work ahead.

The overall conference objective is to accelerate water investments by participating countries and the investment support by ADB. To achieve this, we will be

• First, working toward a shared understanding of countries’ perceptions about their water sector status, which will come from countries’ own presentations later this morning
• We’ll also be discussing together and on a country-by-country basis the barriers—the reasons why—financing levels for water supply, sanitation and resource management have remained too low for what is needed for countries to meet their MDG commitments
• Sharing good practices in overcoming these barriers
• Agreeing on possible solution strategies, including the role of ADB products and services in these solutions
• Overall, improving our working relationship and trust.

The participants represent a strategic alliance for developing the sector through increased investments.

• Five countries are represented at the conference: India, Indonesia Pakistan, Philippines, and Viet Nam. You were specifically invited because you represent a great proportion of the region’s need for better water service delivery and resource management.
• You are key DMC decision makers—from senior government levels of water, planning and financial ministries to provincial and local governments, who (because of decentralization by the national government) are now the final decision makers.
• We will be hearing from the heads of the country delegations in this afternoon’s session, so let me introduce the ADB block that is participating in the conference, starting with the Water Committee, which represents the larger water operations in ADB —; country directors are also present from each of the five countries—; and a number of country project operations staff and sector specialists, who make up the body of our Water Community of Practice, will be participating.

The program was designed to be highly relevant and practical, which is why so many of the sessions are closed-door, country-specific dialogues between the DMC officials and ADB country team members.

• You are active participants, not just audience members. As partners in development, we need frank discussion about what is working and what is not.
• Today’s sessions will help set the context. Heads of country delegates will first share highlights of their country’s water sector, before we launch into an overview discussion on barriers to progress, before we undertake group discussions on barriers with individual countries. We’ll end today with a consideration of good practices in overcoming these barriers.
• Tomorrow’s sessions will focus on finding solutions and strategizing. We’ll look at ADB’s new financing products and how they may be a part of the solution. More country-based dialogues will continue tomorrow.
• In addition to the plenary sessions and country dialogues, several social events have also been scheduled for you to network with others and ADB staff. A field visit has also been arranged for Thursday morning, so that you might experience an example of good practice and ADB value in action.

Country specific materials have been prepared for each of you to use during the country dialogues.

• The workbooks you received contain four guides. When completed, the guides can act as a roadmap for further discussions and decision-making back in your respective countries.

Our expectations exceed what we will accomplish here.

• Armed with new and better knowledge on the barriers and solutions confronting our investment levels, you can lead efforts in your country to develop (or enhance an already existing) water investment program, and ADB can assist through the technical expertise it offers as well as its range of products and services.
• Based on the outcomes of the country-specific dialogues, your country’s current Country Partnership Strategy with ADB may need revisited and revised to reflect this new knowledge. As many of you may already know, the Country Partnership Strategy has replaced the former Country Strategy and Program developed between ADB and DMCs. The Country Partnership Strategy will usually cover 5 years now, with a midterm review in the third year. A business plan is prepared every 3 years.

It should be obvious by now that we have our work cut out for us over the next two days. But first, let’s take a break, get some coffee and refreshments before we get underway with session 2. We’re going to be taking an unusually long break—about an hour—to accommodate a group picture. So if we could first take care of that business, there are ushers waiting to guide to the photo site.

Thank you very much.