On September 17-18, 2020, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) held the 53rd Annual Meeting under the theme of "Asia 2020: Innovation, Inclusiveness and Integration". The Meeting was organized in virtual format with the participation of 68 member countries. The Delegation of Vietnam attending the Meeting was headed by Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).
At the Meeting, the participants agreed to enhance the solidarity for a sustainable and prosperous Asia-Pacific. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has made negative impacts on the global economy, and those impacts are forecast to continue to escalate in most countries in the coming time. Governments of many countries are taking steps to control the pandemic and restart the economy. However, a lot of developing countries are still facing difficulties in the process of economic recovery and resolving the crisis caused by Covid-19. Therefore, the timely support of major financial institutions like the ADB is of great significance.
Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong speaks at the Meeting
Mr. Masatsugu Asakawa, President of the ADB, said that the ADB has committed to coordinating with developed partners and implementing a COVID-19 response package, supplementing more finance to ADF 13 fund, enhancing lendings and equity financing, funding, and other aids to help developing member countries get out of the current crisis. In particular, the ADB would focus on fostering regional cooperation and integration by helping the member countries to establish and ensure more diversified supply and value chains, mitigate the impacts of climate change, and strengthen the regional financial safety network. In addition, the ADB would enhance the investments in health services, education, and social protection to ensure safety and opportunities for all members of the society, including women, girls and disadvantaged population groups. The ADB’s investments would help to build the human resources that the member economies need to develop robustly in the long term. In addition, the ADB also pledged to accelerate efforts on climate change response in order to achieve the objectives set out in Strategy 2030, which are to obtain USD 80 billion for investment in climate change responses, and to implement at least 75% of the total committed operations before 2030. The ADB would invest in information technology and health data; education; funding for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME); and working remotely; also addressing both digital distance and network security. In addition, the ADB is committed to assisting its developing members to ensure safe and effective access to vaccines, and to develop strategies for their equitable distribution. To do this, the ADB would continue to strengthen the cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank Group (WBG), the Vaccine Alliance, vaccine experts, pharmaceutical companies, etc.
Participants in the virtual Meeting
Also at the Meeting, the following documents were adopted by the Governors: (i) the 2019 Annual Report, accordingly, in Southeast Asia, in 2019, the ADB provided finance for the areas of: transport (34%), public administration (26%), finance (14%), education (9%), agriculture, natural resources and rural development (8%). For the private sector, in 2019 the ADB provided finance for the following areas: transport (36%), energy (23%), finance (19%), information technology and communication (17%); (ii) the 2020 Budget Activity, accordingly, the actual total internal administrative expenditure in 2019 was USD 690.5 million; the approved net budget for 2020 was USD 726.7 million; the actual expenditure for the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) in 2019 was USD 13.1 million, and the approved budget in 2020 was USD 17.6 million.
At the Meeting, SBV Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong delivered a speech to share the results achieved by the Government of Vietnam in implementing the dual mission of controlling Covid-19 and accelerating the economic development. The Government of Vietnam also highly acknowledges that the ADB has increased by three times the size of the COVID-19 response package to USD 20 billion on April 13, 2020, in order to address the immediate needs of the developing member countries, including Vietnam. In addition, the provision of grants, technical assistance, and government and private loans to the developing member countries has also been allocated properly to facilitate the member countries to access capital resources more quickly and flexibly. Vietnam also expressed high evaluation for the ADB’s key reforms in enhancing the ADB's operational performance and efficiency. The Government of Vietnam is committed to working closely with the ADB in developing the Country Partnership Strategy for the 2021-2025 period, which will align the priorities in Vietnam's Socio-Economic Development Plan for the 2021–2025 period with the ADB’s Strategy 2030.
Le Hang