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Statement at the Press Conference

By
Haruhiko Kuroda
President
Asian Development Bank

29 January 2008
Madrid, Spain

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today.

First, let me say how delighted I am to be in Madrid, the host city for ADB´s 41st Annual Meeting this coming May. This is my first visit to your beautiful city as President of ADB. Yesterday, I had the privilege of touring Madrid´s very spacious Convention Center, IFEMA, which is most impressive. I would like to convey my sincere appreciation to the Government of Spain, the City of Madrid, the Region of Madrid, and the organizing committee for their partnership and hard work in supporting our Annual Meeting.

Since 1986, Spain has been a member of, and a very valuable partner to ADB, and has contributed immensely to improving the lives of the poor in the Asia and Pacific region. We very much appreciate Spain´s support and are pleased that we will be holding our Annual Meeting here for the first time.

This is an important year for ADB and an important Annual Meeting. Madrid will provide an excellent forum for finance ministers, government and business leaders, academics, members of civil society and others, to gather and discuss a wide range of important development issues facing the Asia and Pacific region. We look forward to hearing from stakeholders how we can better contribute to the region´s development agenda.

As you may know, ADB has been reviewing its own long term strategic framework which will set the strategic direction of the Bank until 2020. This will guide ADB to better meet the ongoing and emerging challenges facing developing countries in the Asia Pacific region. As you know, climate change is a major challenge and Asia has to take the lead on this. With Asia growing at such a fast pace, we need to ensure that we do a better job at managing the environment for future generations to come.

Another important feature is the replenishment of the Asian Development Fund or ADF X. This is our concessional funding window that assists the less developed and weakly performing countries such as Afghanistan in their development efforts. While Asia as a whole has made great economic and social progress, many countries are still lagging behind. The needs are staggering, particularly in view of the Millennium Development Goals. Of the region´s people still living in poverty, 600 million are living on less than one dollar a day. The support of Spain is therefore crucial to helping the poorest of the poor countries in Asia and the Pacific region.

Let me close by saying that the Annual Meeting in May will provide us with an important opportunity to discuss the development challenges of the Asia and Pacific region. I once again thank our host city and country for their support and very much look forward to a successful 41st Annual Meeting here in Madrid. I also look forward to seeing all of you there.

Thank you.