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KYOTO, JAPAN - The vision of abundant opportunity and widely shared prosperity in Asia and the Pacific is achievable, ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda told the official opening of the 40th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors in Kyoto today.

However, to make this vision a reality, the focus must be on “prosperity with inclusiveness and growth with sustainability.” Citing impressive progress over the past four decades, the ADB President emphasized that the region’s development challenges are changing. “We cannot be complacent. Increased inequality across the region, and within individual countries, threatens social cohesion and puts at risk the process of growth itself,” he said. “We must ensure that Asia’s future development is development that benefits all.”

Some 3,000 participants have gathered for the Annual Meeting, held at the Kyoto International Conference Center 4-7 May. Also speaking at today's official opening event was Chairman of ADB’s Board of Governors, Japanese Finance Minister Koji Omi.

“Prosperity with inclusiveness means reaching out to the 620 million Asians still living on less than $1 a day, and indeed raising the bar to encompass the 1.9 billion who have less than $2 per day,” Mr. Kuroda said.

This will require sustained growth that generates jobs and raises incomes.

It also requires a stable environment that nurtures the growth of the private sector, a modern and well-managed infrastructure, and investment in human and social development to reduce disparities and provide greater opportunities for the poor.

Growth with sustainability, meanwhile, requires wise use of natural resources so that the poor do not bear the brunt of the environmental impacts of growth.

This means halting inefficient irrigation practices, deforestation, soil pollution, and other forms of land mismanagement; and guiding the region toward cleaner and more efficient energy production and use.

“Above all, it means seeing our environmental responsibilities not as a cost, but as an investment in the future,” he said.

“Here in this building, where world leaders adopted the Kyoto Protocol 10 years ago, let us commit to work together as a true global community, to share development experiences, to collectively shoulder the burden, and to create a cleaner and more sustainable future for all.”

Mr. Kuroda thanked the Government of Japan for its initiative to enhance sustainable development in Asia, under which it will contribute to ADB’s Clean Energy and Regional Cooperation Facilities.

Mr. Kuroda pointed out that last year, he had commissioned a group of eminent persons to provide their insights on the region’s future. Their report, “Toward a New Asian Development Bank in a New Asia” was published last month.

“The vision of Asia as articulated in the report is one I share – the vision of an Asia and the Pacific fundamentally transformed,” he said. “An Asia and the Pacific with new challenges to tackle – no longer arising from pervasive poverty, but instead from economic success.”

He said such a dramatically transformed Asia will require equal transformation from ADB as its development partner. This process of change has already begun through ADB’s Medium-Term Strategy II and the process will be deepened as the institution reviews its Long-Term Strategic Framework.

He touched on three major strengths of ADB in helping to create a sustainable future of prosperity.

• ADB will continue to provide finance and expertise to intensify regional cooperation and integration to enhance connectivity in the region. It will also help bring to fruition a vibrant, economic community in Asia and the Pacific that can collectively tackle environmental threats, natural disasters, communicable diseases, and other crises that defy national borders.

• Under a new Financing Partnership Strategy, ADB will deepen partnerships for investment with development partners and the private sector while rationalizing, harmonizing, and simplifying multipartner projects. He cited in this regard ADB’s Water Financing Program (2006-2010) and Clean Energy Financing Partnership Facility as examples.

• As access to knowledge is critical to economic and social development, ADB will continue to support knowledge products and networks, such as through its economic reports and knowledge hubs established in the last year, to build capacity to tackle future challenges.

Mr. Kuroda concluded his speech with the message that the people of Asia and the Pacific have an indomitable sprit and the will to rise to untold challenges.

“As we turn now to the challenges ahead, let us keep our shared aspiration for development squarely in our sights,” he said.

“By focusing on inclusive and sustainable development, we will together create an abundance of opportunity in this vast, resilient, and proud Asia and Pacific region, with the benefits of prosperity shared by all.”

Read President Kuroda's opening address.

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