Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has said he is optimistic that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will remain functional and valuable in the decades to come amid the challenges brought about by the breathtaking pace of technological progress, the continuing reconfiguration of Asian economies and the dramatic political events across the globe.
In a dinner hosted by the Philippines last Saturday (May 5), Dominguez also thanked the ADB leadership for the “great work” it has done to ensure the success of the 51st Annual Meeting of its Board of Governors in Manila.
Dominguez, who chairs the ADB Board of Governors this year, said the Philippines “is thankful for the opportunity to host this important meeting held at this important time.”
“The pace of technological change, the continuing reconfiguration of the Asian economies and the dramatic political events around us do challenge our institutions,” Dominguez said at the Host Country Dinner held at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel in Mandaluyong City. “But the passion to happily cope with change, rethink the way we do things and collectively peer into the future we might not fully grasp yet keep us hopeful that this great institution, the Asian Development Bank, will be functional and valuable to all its members in the decades to come.”
Among those present at the dinner were President Rodrigo Duterte; former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo; Toke Talagi, Premier of Niue; Taro Aso, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Japan; Dong Yeon Kim, Deputy Minister of Strategy and Finance of South Korea; ADB president Takehiko Nakao and the finance ministers and central bank governors of the Bank’s 67 member-economies.
During the opening session of the Meeting of the ADB Board of Governors that morning, Dominguez said the ADB should help “future-proof” its member-countries against the sweeping impact of disruptive change by aiding them in harnessing the rapid advances in digital technologies to improve productivity and strengthen economies.
He said ADB’s Strategy 2030 is a “good beginning” in meeting this challenge as it provides the institution with a roadmap that will not only let member-countries adjust to the new balance of power in the global economy in which the Asia-Pacific is the center of gravity, but also help them cope with the enormous forces unleashed by new technologies.
“Rapid, and especially disruptive, technological progress carries both risks and rewards. The ADB is a vital institution for the region in ensuring the risks are mitigated and the rewards evenly distributed,” Dominguez said in his speech at the opening session also held at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel.
Dominguez said living in today’s world means coping with rapid advances in digital technologies, which has both its upsides and downsides as these could, for instance, dramatically improve productivity but could also eradicate jobs and introduce greater inequalities.
“Rapid, disruptive change can likewise greatly enhance access to financial systems but also open doors to digital monies like virtual currencies that no government is prepared to regulate, demand skills that schools are not prepared to provide, and produce virtual constituencies our political orders are not conceived to include,” Dominguez said.
“There is a need to ‘future-proof’ our economies so that technological change makes them strong rather than undermines them. Smart technologies bring great promise but also some amount of peril,” Dominguez said. “The ADB, as the region’s main concourse of development ideas, should help member countries to better harness the forces of technological change. It needs to develop the means to support member countries from falling into the wrong side of the digital divide.”
The delegates to the 51st Annual Meeting, which numbered over 4,000, included finance ministers and central bank governors of ADB member countries, bankers, representatives from the private sector, civil society, academe, multilateral institutions and the media.
Anchored on the theme “Linking People and Economies for Inclusive Development,” among the issues discussed during the 51st meeting were globalization, technology and its impact on jobs and corresponding opportunities, private sector mobilization in funding infrastructure, building climate change resilience, expanding opportunities for women entrepreneurs, and using technology to maximize the skills of aging populations to make development inclusive.
Around 8,000 police officers were deployed to secure this high-level event, which included the ADB Governors’ sessions held at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel, and other meetings conducted at the ADB Headquarters in Mandaluyong City, and nearby hotels.
ADB, which is based in Manila since its inception in 1966, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive, environmentally sustainable growth and regional integration.
BusinessMirror, BusinessWorld, CNN Philippines, Manila Bulletin, and the Philippine Star are the host-country’s media partners for the 51st ADB Annual Meeting.
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