INDIA: FM’s Speech at the 43rd Annual Meeting of ADB

13:49 IST
Finance Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee’s speech delivered at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors’ of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), held in Tashkent on May 1-3, 2010, is as follows:-

“Mr. President, fellow Governors and friends,
At the outset, I extend my warm greetings and thanks to our hosts for organizing the Annual meeting in this beautiful city of Tashkent. Uzbekistan is special to India because of its close historic and cultural ties. A memorial to our former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, who breathed his last here, stands in this city. So does the Mausoleum of Yunus Khan, the grandfather of Babur, founder of the Mughal dynasty. It gives me great pleasure to be here today.

Global economic crisis and recovery
As we meet here, the global economic panorama is brighter than it was a year ago. As a result of concerted actions of the global community under the stewardship of G20, a major economic catastrophe has been averted and the global economy is beginning to chart a steadier course. Asian Development Bank, along with other MDBs, has played its part in supporting the recovery. Of special note in this regard have been the counter cyclical initiatives of ADB and liberal use of its program lending. The fiscal year 2009-10 was a difficult one for India as well. Yet, with a modest stimulus of about 3.3% of GDP in 2008-09, and timely intervention on the monetary policy side, the effectiveness of counter cyclical measures became evident in the fast paced recovery of India. This justifies our optimism for higher growth of the economy in the medium to long term.

General Capital Increase-V & unsubscribed shares
We are happy to note the substantial progress in the subscription process of GCI-V. With the resource commitments of GCI-V in hand, ADB is uniquely positioned to partner in the revival and resurgence of growth in the region. ADB may also like to consider offering the unsubscribed portion of GCI- V to interested member countries.

Increasing Efficiency of Lending
ADB has always been a valued multilateral organization for India. Starting with 2 loans worth $250 million in 1986 to 52 loans amounting to more than $8 billion now, India’s engagement with ADB has been steadily growing. While external assistance does not amount to a significant percentage of our GDP, such assistance is welcome for the strong value addition it is expected to bring, in terms of knowledge transfer and sharing of international good practices. It is extremely important, therefore, that we constantly strive for efficiency in the funds deployed, both in the designing of projects and in the utilization of loan. India has an enviable record of several path-breaking reform oriented operations whether they have been in the area of Khadi sector development program, reform-led urban and transport sector projects or the large scale Public-Private Partnership Technical Assistance. The endeavour would be, to keep raising the bar for ourselves through constant innovation and we look forward to ADB partnering with us in this effort.

ADB is a unique institution in the blend of the sovereign and non-sovereign lending windows that it offers. Building synergies between these modalities, coupled with effective utilisation of the Technical Assistance window, would help to maximise outputs and leverage developmental gains.

We welcome the major solar energy initiative announced by President ADB. Recognising the importance of this area, India has also launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission in January 2010 with the aim of augmenting solar power generation and the needed technology development. We look forward to partnering with ADB in advancing this initiative.

Regional cooperation and integration
ADB, among all MDBs, has been a pioneer in promoting regional cooperation as a major plank of its development strategy. We share that vision. We would like to underscore that a regional approach to development must be inclusive both within the region by promoting a larger Asian identity as well as by being in alignment with the imperatives of global integration

Governance
Expansion of the operations of the Bank on the scale envisaged would require special attention to be paid, to augmenting human resource capacity. Greater use of information technology and systems, partnerships with member countries and a greater thrust on decentralization, particularly to the Resident Missions, would be helpful. I would like to congratulate President ADB for the creation and appointment of the 5th post of Vice President in the ADB. A Vice-President for private sector operations is a step in the right direction, given ADBs commitment to up-scaling non-sovereign lending to 50% of its overall portfolio by 2020. We are happy that, based on a completely transparent and merit-based process, an Indian has been selected for this assignment. As the fourth largest shareholder and amongst the top borrowers of the Bank, including on the private sector side, we are glad to be part of ADB Management again after a long gap. We hope to continue contributing to the development of the Bank and the region.

Conclusion
In conclusion, Mr President, let me commend ADB for its effective role in assisting the region deal with the financial crisis and making every effort to expand its governance base and instruments to achieve superior development impact of its lending. As the Bank forges ahead I assure you of our fullest cooperation for achieving the vision of a poverty-free Asia and Pacific region.”

BY/KP/GN