Friends of Democratic Pakistan Group Ministerial Meeting
ADB Statement by
Xiaoyu Zhao
Vice President, Operations 1
Asian Development Bank
17 April 2009
Tokyo, Japan
Honorable President of Pakistan, Honorable Prime Minister of Japan, Distinguished Ministers, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
The Asian Development Bank is honored to be here at this Ministerial meeting of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan.
The Government is taking firm action to reverse the economic downturn, itself the result of sharp increases in global commodity prices, aggravated by the on-going international financial sector crisis. These two sets of events took place while the country was undergoing a major political transition. This added to instability, creating further economic turmoil.
Pakistan needs to continue with the execution of basic reforms to stabilize the economy. But while it is doing this, it must not lose sight of longer term goals such as promoting employment, cutting poverty and ensuring price stability. The effort requires yet more reforms, special safety net programs and targeted investments in energy, transport, urban services and human development. The effort needs special attention to programs but also to project implementation.
The Asian Development Bank is a long standing partner of Pakistan. It has been for over forty years now. To demonstrate this commitment, our Board of Directors approved in March 2009 a new partnership strategy with a financial envelope of around $4.5 billion for 2009-2011.
ADB's strategic approach is fully aligned to Pakistan's own strategic priorities. As a result, we will offer high sector and theme focus, a programmatic business model, the combination of finance and ideas, private and public sector investments, a high bent on project execution, and an effective use of the resource envelope.
This is the time to support Pakistan. ADB is, and will remain, a trusted partner.
Thank you for your attention.
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