Media Briefing
Statement by
Haruhiko Kuroda
President, Asian Development Bank
At the 41st Annual Meeting
3 May 2008
Madrid, Spain
Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. It is a pleasure to welcome you to the 41st Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank. It is particularly fitting that we are holding our meeting in Europe and, for the first time, in Spain.
I am happy to announce that we have received strong support for the Asian Development Fund, or ADF, for the poorest economies in the region. ADF is our concessional funding window, and we are pleased that donor nations agreed here in Madrid yesterday on a replenishment of $11.3 billion for the next four years. This is a very significant increase of 60% over the last four-year phase of ADF. It shows the strong commitment of donor countries to make ADB a more relevant and trusted development partner for the poorer countries in the Asia and Pacific region. These funds are urgently needed to lift millions out of poverty and help poorer Asian countries progress toward the Millennium Development Goals.
The fund will support roads, clean water, electricity networks and other essential infrastructure that improve the lives of the poor and accelerate economic growth. This includes support for the agriculture sector through improved irrigation systems, rural roads and rural finance. The fund will also be used to enhance regional cooperation and integration, education, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and other environmental initiatives. We look forward to implementing the ADF X program beginning in January 2009. I am very grateful to all donors for their generous contribution to the ADF.
Now I want to touch on the issue of high and rising food prices, which threaten to undermine Asia's efforts to fight against poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Over a billion people in the region are seriously impacted by the food price surge as food expenditure accounts for 60% of their total expenditure basket.
Many governments have provided general subsidies, capped prices and banned exports to keep food grain prices in check. We believe targeted interventions to protect food entitlements of the most vulnerable and poor are more effective to mitigate the immediate impact of rising food prices.
We have outlined the nature of this food price crisis, the underlying causes, the expected impacts and possible ADB responses in a paper titled "Soaring Food Prices: Response to the Crisis." I am pleased to release the paper this morning, and a copy is now available for you.
ADB will provide immediate budgetary support to hardest hit countries to alleviate their fiscal burdens and cushion the impact of rising food prices on the poor. We will work with the affected governments in the region to strengthen safety net programs for food stressed populations and emergency food security reserve systems. In the medium to long run, governments need to step up investment, boost rural infrastructure and strengthen institutions to sustain higher farm output.
We are working closely with our development partners to respond to the crisis in line with our comparative advantages and resource availability. We are also supporting the International Rice Research Institute and the International Food Policy Research Institute to boost research and provision of inputs to farmers to help overcome key constraints.
During this Annual Meeting, we will hear a lot about these and other emerging issues. We will also be discussing Strategy 2020 - ADB's new long-term strategic framework. It is an important year for ADB, and an important year for Asia and the Pacific - one that will set the tone for many years to come.
Once again, thank you for being here today. I would now like to open the floor for your questions.
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