Reforms top bank's agenda
SHANGHAI: The African Development Bank (AfDB) plans to implement further reforms to improve efficiency, bank officials pledged before wrapping up a two-day gathering here yesterday.
Leading officials of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) bid farewell to each other yesterday after the closing ceremony of the bank's annual meetings in Shanghai. From left to right: Donald Kaberuka, president of the African Development Bank Group; Aiuba Cuereneia, governor for Mozambique of AfDB; Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China; Modibo Toure, secretary-general of AfDB's board of governors. Gao Erqiang |
Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China and chair of the AfDB board of governors, also outlined major issues that the bank should consider in its reform.
He said comparative advantages of the bank should be brought into full play to help African countries achieve poverty reduction and development objectives.
Steps should also be taken to improve the performance-based allocation system, he said.
Zhou said special attention should be given to the financing needs of small and poor countries trying to restore social and economic order. That's needed to ensure people's basic livelihood, he said.
He also called for the building of Africa's infrastructure to enhance regional integration.
In addition, efforts should be taken to strengthen coordination and cooperation with the United Nations, African Union, World Bank, African sub-regional development financial institutions and other partners.
Donald Kaberuka, president of the AfDB, said at a news conference after the closing ceremony that the board of governors appreciated the reforms the bank had made in the past year.
The AfDB has accelerated the opening of local offices. Kaberuka also said the bank aims to set up 25 local offices to improve access.
Kaberuka said that the 2007 AfDB annual meetings, the second to be held outside of Africa and the first in Asia, signalled growing Africa-Asia links.
He said the gathering provided a valuable platform to discuss the opportunities and challenges of the continent.
Kaberuka said growing trade between Asia and Africa is a key driver for GDP growth on the African continent.
Participants at the AfDB annual meetings Yan Ping |
A record 2,270 people attended the two-day conference of which 419 were official delegates and 1,004 were observers.
The annual meetings, held at a time when Africa as a whole is resurging, provide a network to meet counterparts of different levels and to arrange new partnership between the two continents, he added.
The 2008 annual meetings will be held next May in Maputo, capital of Mozambique.
(China Daily 05/18/2007 page18)
