The 42nd Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) from May 2-5 brought together representatives of the 67 member Board of Governors from 48 Asia-Pacific Countries and 19 others outside of the Region.Measures stemming from the recent G20 Summit to address the Global Financial Crisis have been undertaken by the ADB; most noteworthy is a General Capital Increase which raises the current capital resource base of the Asian Development Bank from 55 billion to 165 billion dollars. Prior to the meeting, the Vice President in his capacity as Minister of Finance and ADB Governor for Palau transmitted his affirmative vote for the General Capital Increase. Simplified, the capital increase maintains financial reserves needed to lend ordinary capital resources (OCR) to category B and C borrowers. Palau is a category B borrower. While Palau has not been a recipient of loans from the ADB, it has received technical assistance for a variety of projects.And although we have endorsed the GCI Resolution, there remains no financial implication or commitments on our part; however, accessing loans from this institution remains an option that we can utilize at our discretion.
ADB has made a commitment to frontload its lending to help developing countries respond to the global financial crisis. According to ADB’s President, “the Countercyclical Support Facility (CFS) will provide short term loans faster and cheaper than under the ADB’s existing special program loan (SPL) facilities, and will be available to developing member countries who qualify for loans from ADB’s Ordinary Capital Resources (OCR).” Economic crisis support programs will include project investments, quick-disbursing policy based loans, guarantees, and new initiatives designed to address specific needs.It will also expand its support through grants for policy analysis and capacity building.Palau is a member of the Pacific Developing Member Countries (PDMC’s) within the ADB Board of Governors which promotes policies that address the unique needs and interests of Pacific Island Countries. Participating members include Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu and Palau.As a tradition, chairmanship of the PDMC’s is selected based on an alphabetical order of participating member countries. Palau chaired the previous annual meeting while Samoa will chair the upcoming one. Papua New Guinea held the chairmanship this year and presented the PDMC’s position during the Second Business Session based on input from participating governors during earlier PDMC meetings and after a final review and approval of each member.The PDMC’s concerns centered on the needs of its member countries to receive greater support and assistance in these times of negative growth from projected declines in tourism and other income sources and to recognize the unique vulnerabilities of Pacific Island Countries arising fromgeographic isolation, and size. And further, address unique needs arising from natural occurrences such as climate change and disease and lend assistance toward the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.As each PDMC takes strides toward economic recovery, the kind of support from development partners such as ADB becomes essential in efforts to address common challenges that confront the region.Other issues noted among many included the need to limit waste on resources spent on studies and consultancies, but rather utilize these funds for flexible program funding and budgetary support befitting the unique priorities of each participating Pacific Island Country. The PDMC’s take note that the ADB has pledged to address these issues and has begun efforts to accommodate these and numerous other concerns.The Vice President, throughout the period of meetings, sessions and seminars was offered an opportunity for bilateral discussions with and was honored to be a special guest at receptions and other functions hosted by Haruhiko Kuroda, President of the ADB and the Honorable Sri Mulyani Indrawati, the Finance Minister of the Republic of Indonesia and current Chair of the ADB Board of Governors. He is grateful as well for the protocol arrangements and gracious hospitality extended through the State Secretariat by H.E. Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of the Republic of Indonesia and the special opportunity for a personal visit. A meeting with the World Bank’s James Adams, Vice President for East Asia and the Pacific Region and James Hagan, Executive Director for Palau and others were arranged as well during the visit.Various representatives of the Asian Development Bank have scheduled visits to Palau throughout the remainder of the year for continued work on a variety of technical assistance projects. A regional visit by the Board of Directors is to be scheduled for June or early July while an invitation for a visit from the President of the Asian Development Bank in October of this year is now being considered.
