Kuroda re-elected for second 5-year term as ADB President

Friday, 12 August 2011 00:27 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

MANILA, PHILIPPINES: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Board of Governors has unanimously reelected Haruhiko Kuroda as President of ADB for a further five years beginning on 24 November 2011.

Kuroda was first elected ADB President in November 2004, officially assuming office on 1 February 2005 to complete the term of former President Tadao Chino. He was subsequently re-elected for a full five-year term beginning November 2006.

Kuroda is the eighth President of ADB. Under his stewardship, ADB adopted a new long-term strategy charting the Bank’s strategic course to the year 2020, refocusing ADB’s operational agenda on inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth and regional cooperation and integration.

During Kuroda’s tenure, ADB has tripled its capital base from $55 billion to $165 billion, and significantly bolstered its concessional lending window, Asian Development Fund, enabling ADB to push forward on mainstreaming climate change and strengthening support to countries in fragile and conflict-affected situations among others.

“I am honoured by the decision of ADB’s Board of Governors to serve a second five-year term and look forward to the challenges ahead,” said Kuroda. “While countries in Asia and the Pacific have made remarkable progress since I first joined ADB over six years ago, we must not forget that the region is still home to hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest people. There is still much work to be done.”

Before joining ADB, Kuroda was Special Advisor to the Cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and a professor at the Graduate School of Economics at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. In a career spanning nearly four decades, Kuroda has represented Japan’s Ministry of Finance at a number of international monetary conferences as Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs. Born in 1944, Kuroda holds a BA in Law from the University of Tokyo and a Master of Philosophy in Economics from the University of Oxford.