By APD writer Melo M. Acuña

MANILA, June 17 (APD) – Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Takehiko Nakao today said that ADB will improve collaboration with the World Bank in the Philippines and other countries across Asia and Pacific region.

In a statement released late Monday afternoon, the ADB said the Bank is responding to calls from Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III to be “more efficient, responsive and better coordinated with the World Bank and other multilateral development banks to meet the changing needs of different client countries.”

“In the Philippines, ADB is already collaborating with the World Bank on the implementation of the government’s conditional cash transfer program and the rehabilitation and recovery efforts in Malawi, among others. We can do better, and will take concrete steps to further improve the process,” President Nakao said in a statement.

Both Messrs. Nakao and Dominguez have had numerous talks in the run-up to ADB’s 50th Annual Meeting in Yokohama in 2017 and ever since. In his speech in Yokohama, Mr. Dominguez underscored the need for ADB to “reinvent itself.” Just recently, Mr. Dominguez wrote a letter to Mr. Nakao, asking ADB to promote its position as the region’s premier multilateral institution and expand collaboration with the World Bank, which is under the new leadership of Mr. David Malpass.

Mr. Nakao said ADB and the World Bank are exploring new joint initiatives to reduce transaction costs for developing member countries. The two institutions are exchanging views on how to work more closely in areas such as programming support, procurement, project implementation review, and social and environmental safeguards.

ADB projects in the Philippines are expanding in line with the “Build, Build, Build” initiative and other development priorities of the government. Annual lending is increasing from below US$1 billion in 2011-2017 to US$1.4 billion in 2018 and US$2.5 billion in 2019-2021.

(Top image: ADB President Takehiko Nakao. File photo/Melo Acuna)

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)