MANILA – Finance secretary Carlos Dominguez III has underscored the need for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank to closely coordinate efforts and explore their complementarities to more effectively accelerate sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific region, the Department of Finance (DOF) said in a statement on Tuesday.
On behalf of the Philippines, Dominguez said during the recently concluded Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) 23rd Finance Ministers Meeting that close coordination between the two multilateral institutions will help weed out duplications in their functions and help them respond more effectively to the region’s financing needs.
Aside from the Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam also called on the ADB and World Bank to work in synergy and complement their efforts in alleviating poverty in the region.
“From the point of view of the governor of both institutions, I don’t see the necessity for spending so much overhead in duplicating the offices of both ADB and the World Bank around the region. From the point of view of the client, why do we have to deal with two bureaucracies for the same purposes?” he stressed.
“So I’d like to suggest, especially on behalf of the smaller countries, that ADB and World Bank consider becoming more closely coordinated, and perhaps look for areas where they can cut their own internal costs in servicing the other needs of ASEAN,” he added.
Dominguez represents the Philippines in the Governors’ Boards of the ADB and the World Bank.
He made the statement after the presentations before the ASEAN Finance Ministers by the ADB and World Bank about their respective institutions’ financing programs in the region.
During the recent finance ministers’ meeting held in Chiang Rai, Thailand, World Bank acting Chief Economist for East Asia and Pacific Andrew Mason discussed the institution’s partnership and financing support for sustainable development in the region, while ADB President Takehiko Nakao presented the bank’s innovative financing approaches for sustainable infrastructure in ASEAN./PN
