ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.
Masatsugu Asakawa is the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Chairperson of ADB’s Board of Directors. He was elected President by ADB’s Board of Governors and assumed office on 17 January 2020.
On 11 May, on the sidelines of the ASEAN Indonesia 2023 in Labuan Bajo, President Asakawa joined the 15th Brunei Darussalam–Indonesia–Malaysia–Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP–EAGA) Summit with the Sultan of Brunei Darussalam Hassanal Bolkiah, Indonesia President Joko Widodo, Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. President Asakawa also attended the 15th Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) Summit with President Widodo, Prime Minister Ibrahim, and Thailand Minister of Finance and ADB Governor Arkhom Termpittayapaisith. President Asakawa commended ADB developing member countries on the progress of their respective regional development agendas. He highlighted ADB’s support to both subregional initiatives, and noted several priority areas that are crucial in shaping their future, including addressing climate change, tackling food insecurity, expanding economic corridors, and strengthening tourism revival. President Asakawa also met with Prime Minister Ibrahim bilaterally. Read the article.
President Asakawa welcomed Georgia as the host country of the 57th ADB Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors. He congratulated Georgia Minister of Finance and ADB Governor Lasha Khutsishvili for his appointment as the next Chair of the ADB Board of Governors and thanked Georgia for offering to host the event in Tbilisi from 2 to 5 May 2024. Read the news release.
President Asakawa, at a meeting with civil society organizations on 5 May in Incheon, highlighted the value of collaborating with CSOs and listening to their feedback on policy review and the whole project cycle. The CSOs recommended core areas of action for ADB and other stakeholders to overcome multiple crises; highlighted the importance of ensuring decent work in the region’s recovery; reiterated the Paris alignment under the bank’s energy policy and climate change action plan; and stronger safeguard policy. Ambassadors from the Asia and the Pacific Youth Symposium presented the Youth Agenda report for education, skills development, and employment opportunities for young people.
President Asakawa welcomed and introduced former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as keynote speaker of the Transforming MDBs to Address the Climate Crisis seminar on 4 May in Incheon. Mr. Ban highlighted the MDBs' role in transforming economies to a low-carbon and resilient model, which requires a collaborative development approach focusing on longer-term objectives, and expansive and innovative investments. Panelists shared their insights on what is needed for MDBs to serve as effective partners in ensuring such a successful shift. Tuvalu Finance Minister and ADB Governor Seve Paeniu shared his views on how MDBs can bring adaptation and resilience efforts to scale.
President Asakawa, together with the heads of delegations from Denmark, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States officially launched the Innovative Finance Facility for Climate in Asia and the Pacific (IF-CAP) on 4 May in Incheon. IF-CAP’s initial partners are in discussions with ADB to provide grants and guarantees which will be leveraged to expand ADB’s lending capacity and accelerate climate action in developing member countries. The ambition for IF-CAP’s overall size is $3 billion, which could facilitate up to $15 billion in new loans for climate mitigation and adaptation.
ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa reiterated the importance of a just and inclusive transition to a low-carbon future and stressed the need for urgent collective action against climate change at a G20 event.
The COVID-19 pandemic pushed 4.7 million people in Southeast Asia into extreme poverty in 2021, as 9.3 million jobs disappeared, compared with a baseline no-COVID scenario, according to a new ADB report presented at SEADS.
ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa and Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa met in Colombo. In the meeting, Mr. Asakawa reaffirmed ADB’s support for Sri Lanka’s recovery path from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will continue supporting private sector-led development in Uzbekistan, including renewable energy, as the country pursues a new development strategy, ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa said today in a virtual...
Former President of the Asian Development Bank Masao Fujioka passed away in Tokyo, Japan, on 27 December at the age of 97.
The Asian Development Bank today approved a $1.5 billion loan to help the Government of India purchase safe and effective vaccines against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
ADB and governments in Asia and the Pacific must work together to improve domestic resource mobilization and expand international tax cooperation to help future generations avoid unsustainable debt.
Global value chains present significant growth opportunities for developing economies even in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and their contribution to the world economy may be much larger than normally reported, according to a report...
The Asian Development Bank today welcomed the scaled-up commitments from its developing member countries at COP26 as a promising step forward to strengthen actions in the global battle against climate change.
ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa, Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, and Philippine Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez announced at COP26 the launch of a new partnership to establish an Energy Transition Mechanism.
Speech by Masatsugu Asakawa, ADB President, at the event Financing Green Recovery for a Low-Carbon and Climate-Resilient Southeast Asia at COP26, 2 November 2021, Glasgow, UK
Opening remarks by Masatsugu Asakawa, ADB President, at the Ecological Civilization Forum of the 15th Conference of the Parties Convention on Biological Diversity, 14 October 2021, Kunming, People’s Republic of China
Speech by Masatsugu Asakawa, President, Asian Development Bank, at the Seventh Greater Mekong Subregion Summit Virtual Meeting Hosted by Cambodia, 9 September 2021
Remarks by Masatsugu Asakawa, President, Asian Development Bank, at the Global Education Summit – Financing the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) 2021–2025, 29 July 2021
Keynote speech by Masatsugu Asakawa, President, Asian Development Bank, at the Indonesia Ministry of Finance-ADB 2021 International Climate Change Conference: A Just and Affordable Transition toward Net Zero, 22 July 2021
Remarks by Masatsugu Asakawa, President, Asian Development Bank, at the 1st Climate Vulnerables Finance Summit and V20 Ministerial Dialogue VII, 8 July 2021
Opening remarks by Masatsugu Asakawa, President, Asian Development Bank, at the International Economic Association World Congress 2021, 2 July 2021
Opening remarks by Masatsugu Asakawa, President, Asian Development Bank, at the Asia Clean Energy Forum 2021, 15 June 2021
Opening speech by Masatsugu Asakawa, President, Asian Development Bank, at the Meeting of Governors of Pacific Developing Member Countries with ADB Management at the 54th Annual Meeting, 5 May 2021
Address by Masatsugu Asakawa, President, Asian Development Bank, to the Board of Governors Business Session, at the 54th Annual Meeting, 5 May 2021
Masatsugu Asakawa is the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Chairperson of ADB’s Board of Directors. He was elected President by ADB’s Board of Governors and assumed office on 17 January 2020. In August 2021, he was reelected for a 5-year term starting on 24 November 2021.
Under Mr. Asakawa’s leadership, ADB made significant contributions to the region’s COVID-19 pandemic response and recovery planning with a $20 billion comprehensive response package and $9 billion Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility. He also played a key role in rolling out a series of new and innovative financing initiatives—including an Energy Transition Mechanism — to spur the region’s low-carbon development and elevated ADB’s 2030 cumulative climate financing ambition to $100 billion as ADB continues to focus on the battle against climate change.
Prior to joining ADB, he served as Special Advisor to Japan’s Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, and has a close-to-four decades’ career at the Ministry of Finance with diverse professional experience that cuts across both domestic and international fronts.
In the immediate aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, Mr. Asakawa, in his capacity as Executive Assistant to Prime Minister Taro Aso, took part in the first G20 Leaders’ Summit Meeting in November 2008. He was instrumental in orchestrating a globally coordinated financial package to abate the financial crisis, including a $100 billion loan from Japan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Then in 2016, in his capacity as Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs, he took on a leading role for the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ meeting in Sendai under the Japanese presidency, where a sustainable and inclusive development agenda was extensively discussed.
Most recently, he served as Finance Deputy for the G20 meetings under the Japanese presidency, playing a pivotal role for the success of the G20 Osaka Summit as well as the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ meeting in Fukuoka. Some of his outstanding achievements in Osaka include the endorsement by the G20 Leaders of the “G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment” and the “G20 Shared Understanding on the Importance of UHC Financing in Developing Countries”. Before these, he had occupied various prominent positions within the Finance Ministry, including director positions in charge of development policy issues, foreign exchange markets, and international tax policy.
Mr. Asakawa’s professional experience extends beyond the realms of the Japanese government. Most notably, he served as Chief Advisor to ADB President Kimimasa Tarumizu between 1989 and 1992, during which time he spearheaded the creation of a new office focused on strategic planning. Also, he had frequent engagement with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in such positions as Chair for Committee on Fiscal Affairs (2011–2016). Furthermore, he was a senior staff at the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF (1996–2000). In the meantime, he gave lectures as Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Economic Science, Saitama University (2006–2009), and at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo (2012–2015).
Mr. Asakawa obtained his BA from University of Tokyo (Economics Faculty) in 1981, and MPA from Princeton University, USA, in 1985.