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ADF X Donors' Meeting

Opening Statement by
Haruhiko Kuroda
President, Asian Development Bank

1 May 2008
Madrid, Spain

General Director for International Finance, Madame Isabel Riaño Ibañez,

Mr. Chairman,

Distinguished Delegates,

Members of the Board of Directors, and

Colleagues,

Welcome to the 4th Donors' Meeting for the ninth replenishment of the Asian Development Fund-ADF X. I would like to thank you for accepting our invitation to attend this very important meeting.

The replenishment discussions that we began in Sydney on 13-14 September 2007 have been vigorous and very productive. I am very hopeful that we will be able to successfully accomplish the replenishment of ADF X at this meeting.

We are privileged in being able to conduct our discussions in this historic city of Madrid on the eve of ADB's Annual Meeting. I would like to thank the Government of Spain for the excellent arrangements and their gracious hospitality.

Let me take this opportunity to welcome the representatives of several of our ADF borrowing member countries. I would also like to welcome my colleagues from ADB's Board of Directors.

Challenges Facing Us Today

In the past, when discussing Asia's dynamism and rapid growth, we have recognized that there is the other face of Asia-millions of people in extreme poverty. In recent months, food prices across the world have soared. This has hit several ADF countries very hard where several additional millions of people face the risk of hunger and malnutrition. If not handled expeditiously, this food price crisis could undermine the gains Asia and the Pacific have achieved in fighting poverty in recent years.

We will do all we can in the short term and in the medium- to long-term to help address this crisis in line with our comparative strengths and capacities. Besides income poverty, food deprivation, and malnutrition, there are other non-income MDG targets where many ADF countries are also facing considerable shortfalls. Effective implementation of the proposed ADF X program would contribute significantly towards meeting these targets. I am sure you will all agree that the situation we are now facing has made it even more urgent for us to conclude these discussions on the ADF X replenishment, and proceed toward implementation.

Progress during ADF X Discussions

Since we began our conversation last September, ADB has made considerable progress. We have undertaken several initiatives to consolidate reforms that were agreed to during the ADF IX replenishment negotiations. While we have vigorously implemented these reforms through the ADF IX period, we recognized that some aspects of the reforms required further reinforcement.

We have initiated a review of ADB's operations evaluation function with a view to further strengthen its independence and effectiveness. A Board ?Management Working Group has been established to manage the process. The terms of reference for this review were finalized in consultation with Board of Directors. The review is expected to be completed before the end of the year.

Another key reform relates to our human resources management. We have improved recruitment procedures for senior staff, including simultaneous internal and external advertisement of such positions. We issued guidelines for flexible recruitment procedures. We conducted a staff engagement survey March, and shared its preliminary results with the Board and staff. We have also circulated the draft terms of reference for a comprehensive review of human resource strategy to the Board for comments. We will finalize the draft within this month and complete the review within the year.

As reported to you in Vientiane, we have also made good progress in many other reform areas. There is no doubt in my mind that we would not have been able to cover all this ground without your strong encouragement and your valuable advice. For this, I thank you most sincerely.

Financing ADF X

I believe that the actions that we have taken during the past few months have positioned ADB to effectively deliver the ADF X program. Both the results framework that we have adopted for ADF X and the implementation plan are important tools that will enable us to track and measure the effectiveness of our operations, and make course-corrections as the need arises. It is important to finalize the financing framework for this replenishment, which will enable us to move forward on implementation beginning in January 2009.

I would now like to call upon all of you to bring these replenishment discussions to a successful conclusion at this meeting. I am confident that Dr. McCawley, our highly experienced and capable Chair, will help us navigate our way, and my Management team and I are also here to support your deliberations.

I wish you a very successful meeting.

Thank you.