Transcript
Eugene Zhukov:
For us, it’s very significant to hold it in a Pacific Development Member Country for the first time ever. Both the host government and ourselves and our memberships are very excited about doing it in a Pacific Developing Member Country. We have now 15 member countries from the Pacific and we have very good attendance so everybody is happy to be here in the Pacific. It gives the countries an opportunity to highlight the issues facing the Pacific region to the rest of the Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world.
Dominic Godfrey:
Prior to the meeting the 10th Pacific Economic Monitor came out from the ADB, again highlighting the significance of climate change remaining one of the top challenges faced by the Pacific. As you’ve just mentioned, Pacific member states, 15 of them, bringing items of their concern – presumably this will be one of the major ones – what else are the key agenda items for this meeting?
EZ:
The two top things of this annual meeting Dominic are sustainable tourism and the health of the oceans. We will also have a number of seminars and discussions on ‘debt sustainability’. We will also discuss issues related to ‘digital solutions for a more liveable future.’ We’ll talk about issues related to renewable energy investments in the Asia-Pacific. And we’ll talk about economic empowerment and gender equality.
DG:
And how is the ADB helping the Pacific in these particular areas?
EZ:
The Pacific is a very important region for us. If we look at our charter, it demands that we pay specific-special-attention to the Pacific small member countries, and we’ve been expanding our presence quite aggressively in the Pacific. Late last year the ADB board approved the establishment of a network of 11 country offices in the smallest Pacific development countries. This expansion will cover already existing offices in Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu, and also the establishment of new offices in Cook Islands, (Federated States of) Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau and Tuvalu. And in terms of our operations, they have been also increasing steadily. In 2018 ADB committed more than US$400-million on new projects in the Pacific and overall since 2014 ADB committed over US$2-billion.
DG:
What new financial instruments are being developed or are there any new initiatives that are going out to help with disaster and climate change resilience and recovery?
EZ:
I’ll mention a couple of things here. One is a general thing. Most of our Pacific Development Member Countries are recipients of funds from our concessional window. In the concessional window we have two separate branches; one is providing money in the grant form and the other is in highly concessional loans. So late last year ADB, the donors from the Asian Development Fund, agreed to double the base allocation to the Pacific member countries which are eligible for such financing, from US$6-million a year to US$12-million. That’s one thing. Second thing, you may know that 2017 the ADB approved what we call the Pacific Disaster Resilience Programme which covers Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu. The ADB has been able to demonstrate the effectiveness of this programme already through disbursements for example of US$6-million within a day of the request from the government of Tonga in 2018 after Cyclone Gita.
DG:
In terms of disasters like cyclones, particularly Gita, Pam and Winston in Fiji in recent history, what opportunity will the delegates at this meeting – there are up to 3000 of them – what opportunities will they have to experience first-hand what the Pacific is having to deal with in terms of climate change to help them get a better understanding?
EZ:
Yeah, many of the delegates attending this annual meeting will be visiting the Pacific for the first time ever and for them to interact directly with the governors and ministers from the Pacific Island countries which are directly affected by the issues of climate change, I think it will be an eye-opening experience. We will have a number of seminars and other occasions where the issues are going to be discussed among the delegates, and in general, I think media attention to this event will highlight issues of climate change facing the Pacific to the rest of the world in a prominent way.
