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Thursday Dec 12, 2024
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ADB Chair and Sri Lanka Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa witnesses the exchange of the MoU signed by ADB South Asia Department Director General Kenchi Yokoyama and Finance Ministry Secretary Sajith Attygalle to host the 2022 Annual Meeting in May next year
In a development that will boost Sri Lanka’s international profile as well as MICE tourism, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to hold the former’s 2022 Annual Meeting in Colombo in May next year.
Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa witnessed the MoU being signed by ADB South Asia Department Director General Kenchi Yokoyama and Finance Ministry Secretary Sajith Attygalle in Colombo yesterday.
As per the MoU, the 55th Annual Meeting will be held from 2-5 May in Colombo. Sri Lanka is also the current Chair of the ADB.
Sri Lanka was previously scheduled to host the ADB Annual Meeting in 2020 but it was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 Annual Meeting too was held virtually. The last in-person Annual Meeting was held in Fiji in May 2019. The theme of the 2020 Annual Meeting is ‘Positioning Climate Resilient Green Economy for the post-COVID-19 World’.
Established in 1966, the ADB is owned by 68 members, of whom 49 are from the Asian region. The ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty.
Minister Basil Rajapaksa said that Sri Lanka would be the second country in South Asia to host an annual meeting of the ADB, with India being the first in 2006. He thanked the ADB for the opportunity given to host the meeting and said Colombo would be best suited.
The Finance Ministry said the ADB's Annual Meetings attract around 3,000-5,000 delegates, including finance ministers, heads of central banks, and representatives of international financial institutions. Hosting the annual meeting will be a big boost for Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) tourism segment as Sri Lanka looks to an early revival with fully vaccination and waning cases of COVID-19.
Minister Rajapaksa also updated the ADB on Sri Lanka's progress in containing the spread of COVID-19 through its rapid vaccination initiative.
He said Sri Lanka was looking forward to further support from the ADB, especially to help small and medium enterprises impacted by the pandemic.
The ADB has been a major development partner to Sri Lanka since 1966 and is today the country’s largest source of multilateral development assistance.
To date the ADB has committed loans, grants, and technical assistance totalling $ 11.1 billion for Sri Lanka. Cumulative loan and grant disbursements to Sri Lanka amount to $ 7.96 billion. In 2020, the ADB disbursed $ 745 million to Sri Lanka, the highest ever annual total for disbursements.
In July, the ADB approved a loan of $ 150 million for Sri Lanka to purchase vaccines against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and improve vaccination information, delivery and monitoring systems. The project is part of ADB’s $ 9 billion Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility (APVAX) launched in December 2020, to offer rapid and equitable vaccine-related support to ADB developing member countries.
Manila – Philippines-based ADB's Secretary Muhammad Ehsan Khan said Sri Lanka has been successful in containing the COVID-19 pandemic and noted that hosting the annual meeting would further boost the country's international profile. The Office of Secretary provides advice and counsel to the Board of Governors, Board of Directors, and Management.
