ADB annual meet to prepare world for the future

MANILA, Philippines — TBILISI – Government officials from nearly 70 states, development partners, private sector and civil society organizations will gather here to discuss how the current and future financial and economic conditions will impact the world.

The 57th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will be held here in Tbilisi, the historical capital city of Georgia, over the next few days where leaders are expected to assess and come up with solutions on today’s pressing issues.

This year’s theme “Bridge to the Future” perfectly embodies Tbilli’s location, which is considered as a crossroad between the east and west. It likewise reflects the interlinkages between Asia and Europe, exploring the physical, financial and economic connections now and for the future.

Finance Secretary Ralph Recto is the governor for the Philippines at the ADB. Recto is also the vice chair of the Board of Governors of the multilateral lender.

However, Recto will miss this year’s ADB meeting which would have been his first attendance since he was appointed as finance chief in January.

According to the DOF, Recto was originally scheduled to attend, but eventually begged off after his consecutive meetings in the United States for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings last month.

“I have a lot of work here,” Recto said.

Instead, Recto is sending finance undersecretary Joven Balbosa to represent him.

Balbosa heads the DOF’s International Finance Group (IFG) tasked to secure foreign  grants and loans and initiates and negotiates foreign borrowing and debt restructuring.

IFG participates in policy formulation regarding external resource mobilization and coordinates with other government agencies regarding international agreement on trade, investment, tax treaties and other international arrangements.

Jaybee Garganera of non-government organization Alyansa Tigil Mina is also attending this year’s meeting and will participate in the civil society panel to tackle how ecosystems may be affected by low-carbon, cross-border energy plans and projects financed by the ADB.

“We want ADB to give more serious attention to the implementation of the safeguard mechanisms – environmental, social and governance principles – to ensure that their funded projects are not displacing and properly addressing the impacts of their projects to affected communities,” Garganera told The STAR.

“We also want the bank to start providing concrete actions to reprisals or retaliations by governments when community activists resist or oppose ADB-funded projects, such as the coal-power plant in Iloilo and the climate smart mining project in Mongolia,” he said.

In a curtain raiser to the annual meeting, ADB president Masatsugu Asakawa said Asia and the Pacific appears to be resilient, but the region is facing a tremendous amount of uncertainties and challenges.

These include geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East, unstable global financial markets due to the monetary policy orientation in advanced economies, food security and the climate change crisis.

As such, ADB believes there is a need for multilateral development banks (MDBs) to be a bridge to the future and further support developing economies.

“For MDBs to be a good bridge to the future, I think three factors are very important: first is appropriate climate action; second is mobilization of private sector capital; a third one is to enhance regional cooperation to complement globalization as we discussed,” Asakawa said.

“And especially if these three factors are combined together, I think MDBs could be a very powerful tool to address the challenges we are currently facing,” he said.

ADB meetings provide a venue for ADB governors to review the bank’s performance and set-out guidance on its operational, administrative and financial directions.

Top of agenda for this year include the continuing fight against climate change, heat waves, floods and other frequent disasters.

Experts will also discuss managing the macro-financial impacts of decarbonization, pursuing change in support of climate outcomes and women’s resilience to heat stress in a warming world.