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Public-Private Round Table on Financing Development

Welcome Remarks
Ursula Schaefer-Preuss
Vice President, Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development
Asian Development Bank

18 June 2008
ADB Headquarters, Mandaluyong City

Introduction

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you here today at our Headquarters in Manila to join us in a discussion between leaders of the private and public sector and senior management of ADB on how we, together, can better address the financing needs for development. Some of you have come from very far away specifically for this event, and we sincerely appreciate your effort in joining us today.

Today's event is part of a larger engagement initiative between multilateral development institutions and the private sector, organized and led by the World Economic Forum. It is part of a global dialogue between MDBs and private sector leaders to foster a better mutual understanding of the role of MDBs and the private sector for financing development, and ultimately catalyze private investment in this area. The event is very timely as the Doha Follow up Conference on the Monterrey Consensus comes closer, and expectations are high.

Building from the Monterrey Consensus

One of the conclusions of the UN Conference on "Financing for Development" in Monterrey in 2002 was that greater cooperation between the public and private sector actors is required to achieve the MDGs. The World Economic Forum then took the initiative and in a first phase engaged in a consultative process with a wide range of stakeholders to identify what MDBs could do to more effectively work with the private sector. This first phase resulted in a publication (in 2006) on the "Untapped Potential of DFIs to Catalyse Private Investment".

Accordingly, a second phase was launched last year to engage into more specific discussions with the major regional MDBs, including the IADB, AfDB and ADB to distill common challenges, best practices and innovations.

This event also complements a series of other events that took place recently. I participated myself in a very lively discussion hosted by you, Mr. Samans, and your team, in Madrid during our Annual Meeting on this topic. I believe the discussion that we will be having today can build on that event.

Conclusions: Introduction of President Kuroda and Managing Director Samans

Let me now introduce President Kuroda to present and share with us ADB's views on the main theme of our joint Public-Private Roundtable on Financing Development.

Thank you, Mr. President. Now, please allow me to briefly introduce Mr. Richard Samans, who is leading this initiative at the WEF:

• Mr. Samans is Managing Director of the World Economic Forum, responsible for the Forum's public-private partnership initiatives and its relations with governments, international organizations, NGOs, unions and other non-business constituencies.
• Mr. Samans is a member of the Forum's managing board. He has developed the organization's portfolio of multi-stakeholder projects, which currently engage over 250 Forum member companies in action-or policy-oriented work in collaboration with experts from official, civil society, academic and other institutions. He has been actively involved in structuring the global issues program content of the Forum's meetings.
• Before joining the Forum in 2001, Mr. Samans had senior positions in the US administration. I am delighted that Mr. Samans will co-chair the sessions today.

Mr. Samans, may I also ask you to open the event and share the WEF's views on the issues?