ADB AT 50: THEBANK’SANNUALMEETINGSTHROUGH THEYEARS

ADB will hold the 49th editionof its annual meeting on May2-5 in Frankfurt, Germany,with over 3,000 developmentmovers and shakers expectedto participate in the event. Thetheme for this year is“cooperating forsustainability.”

The bank’s annual meeting,according to its website, is “anopportunity to provideguidance on ADBadministrative, financial, andoperational directions.” Ninepresidents — includingincumbent President TakehikoNakao — have presided over allof the annual meetings to date.

It also marks the return of theevent on European soil sincethe annual meeting in Madrid,Spain in 2008. IncludingFrankfurt, this is the 11th timethe event is held outside of theAsia-Pacific region.

The Frankfurt event also kicksoff the bank’s 50 yearanniversary celebrations amidthe Asia-Pacific region’sgrowing donor environment.Last year, ADB overalloperations amounted to $27.17billion.

The inaugural annual meetingof the Asian DevelopmentBank was held at the TokyoPrince Hotel in the Japanesecapital on Nov. 24-26, 1966 — amonth before the opening ofthe bank’s headquarters inManila, Philippines.

The Philippine capital Manila,which also serves as the bank’sheadquarters, is the mostfrequent host city of ADB’sannual meetings, hosting theevent 15 times. The most recentone was held in 2012 at thePhilippine InternationalConvention Center.

The themes of the last five annualmeetings (excluding Frankfurt) are (1)Fostering partnership fordevelopment; (2) The Silk Road:Connecting Asia with the changingworld; (3) Development throughempowerment; (4) Inclusive growththrough better governance andpartnerships; and (5) Regionalintegration, middle-income countries,climate change and finance.

Next year’s annual meeting,the 50th edition, is expectedto be held in Yokohama,Japan.