The Asian Development Bank’s board of governors concluded its 44th annual meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Friday (May 6), with ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda emphasizing the need for national, regional and global actions to address development challenges in the Asia-Pacific region.
Key issues tackled during the meeting included rising commodity prices in the region, the need for better and more infrastructure, and climate change. Ways to ensure prosperity in the region were also discussed, and various partnerships as well as agreements were announced.
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ADB said its next annual meeting will be held in the Philippines.
New engines of growth
Developing Asia should begin developing new engines of growth if it wants to sustain its robust economic growth, according to a joint ADB-International Monetary Fund seminar held during the meeting. Addressing the seminar, Kuroda said developing countries in the region should enhance their citizens’ access to finance and strengthen their social safety nets in order to boost spending and reduce precautionary savings.
The importance of domestic infrastructure investment and regional trade was also highlighted.
In another seminar, experts emphasized the need to strengthen and expand regional infrastructure to support easier and cheaper transport of goods, people and services across the region. This is necessary to sustain growth over the years, the experts said.
A separate seminar focused on the challenges faced by middle-income Asian countries and how these countries can avoid losing their ability to compete with both lower-income countries and more advanced ones.
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