PGMA's Speech during the Luncheon with Participants of the 36th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Board of Governors

PGMA's Speech during the Luncheon with Participants of the 36th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Board of Governors

Grand Ballroom, EDSA Shangri-la Plaza Hotel, Mandaluyong City (30 June 2003)

Thank you.

Thank you, Secretary Romulo.

Mr. Canachi, the Chairman of the Board of Governors and Governor for Turkey; Mr. Chino, President of the Asian Development Bank, congratulations for your leadership and able stewardship of the Asian Development Bank through another challenging year.

His Excellency, President Fidel Ramos; the excellencies of the diplomatic corps and heads of international organizations; Secretary Camacho and the other members of the Cabinet; distinguished governors; delegates to this 36th Annual Meeting of the ADB:

I'm pleased to extend to all of you the warm welcome of the Filipino people. This annual meeting, indeed, as the chairman said, is a good time to reflect on the future of Asia.

I believe that Asia's long-term prospects are bright. Asian countries will grow and prosper. They will lead the world in the knowledge economy. They will enable more of their peoples to fight poverty, ignorance, disease and terrorism.

I say this because, fortuitously, Asia has a dynamic and trusted partner -- the Asian Development Bank. I commend the Asian Development Bank for helping make this part of the world a better place to live in.

I'm proud that my late father, then President Diosdado Macapagal, worked hard for the Philippines to have the honor of hosting the bank's headquarters, and that he laid the cornerstone of the headquarters in 1965. Since that cornerstone laying of 1965, the Asian Development Bank has witnessed three great waves in the economic history of Asia:

First, Japan became an industrial powerhouse, and is now the single biggest source of official development assistance to the developing world;

Second, came the newly-industrializing economies in east and Southeast Asia, which in the seventies became the exporters of manufactured products on a global scale;

Third, we are now witnessing the rapid growth of china and its full engagement with the global economy, having recently become a member of the world trade organization.

The dynamic interplay of these three great waves of economic progress since 1965 has underscored efforts to improve the quality of life in Asia.

Unfortunately, however, as President Chino said, there are still economies in Asia that are lagging behind. Unfortunately, too, there are still millions of people in Asia who subsist on less than one u.s. dollar a day. It is in this challenging scenario that the ADB is situated, and I congratulate the bank for its vision to eradicate poverty in Asia.

When I became president in 2001, my administration and the ADB entered into a poverty partnership agreement. This agreement provides technical and financial support to my administration's goal of eliminating poverty within the decade. I thank the ADB for its significant contributions to our priority projects in basic education and health, agrarian reform and agricultural modernization, and infrastructure development.

I also thank the ADB for its support for my efforts for peace and development in Mindanao, and also for implementing the proposal I made in the Asean Summit of 2001 for the ADB to be the chief advisor of the Brunei- Indonesia-Malaysian-Philippines East Asean growth area or BIMP-EAGA. The BIMP-EAGA includes Mindanao and other major island regions of our neighboring countries who share common seas. These major island regions are regions where peace and development are twin concerns.

For some time now, terrorist networks had been working across these common seas to establish a radical enclave. Small, clandestine training activities have shifted among the island regions of these common seas as the circumstances would allow and this has happened in isolated parts of the Mindanao.

We have worked closely with our neighbors regarding this. We have worked closely with Indonesia in checking and intercepting their nationals who are involved in this activity. In the case of Malaysia, they are involved in the peace process, which serves the interest of curbing the spread of terrorist cells. Our Philippine-U.S. Balikatan training exercises have also helped overall towards this end. The regional and international cooperation versus these terrorist networks is very strong and unrelenting. And I trust that the regional and international cooperation against poverty in BIMP-EAGA will be just as unrelenting now that the ADB is involved.

The ADB can continue to do much for the future of Asia. In my view, this ambitious agenda should at least include the following:

First, it must address the plight of the poorest of the poor who live on the edge of famine, disease, illiteracy and despair;

Second, it must promote greater trade between developed and developing countries that must then be used for poverty reduction and development. Trade liberalization can mean billions of dollars to poor countries, yet up to today developed countries continue to exercise protectionism. President Chino spoke about the Doha round. The Doha round is supposed to be the round where we can make trade serve development. Let us implement that;

Third, the agenda must encourage the flow of greater private capital from the developed to the developing countries. Foreign companies and capital must get more engaged in developing countries that upgrade their policies and standards. It's a two-way street;

Fourth, the agenda must supplement debt restructuring and an increased financial aid with each other. And I might add -- what my secretary of agriculture said -- hopefully, with the lower cost of capital;

Fifth, the agenda must actively support institutional capacity building in the developing countries to improve governance, empower civil society, increase transparency, and increase openness and pluralism, because today weak administrative capacity still hobbles many poor countries.

On the part of the Philippines I am seeking to lay the foundations of a strong Philippine republic by strengthening the bureaucracy and the institutions needed to execute good policy and provide essential services to the people. Thus, I commend our bureau of internal revenue for its housecleaning efforts. And noting the increased collections of the land transportation office, we hope all government offices continue to become more efficient and effective in their respective duties. ADB can do much in supporting this kind of institutional capacity building.

For this agenda for the 21st century to succeed, developed and developing countries alike must accept new responsibilities to go with new opportunities in this future of Asia. Debtor countries must meet the challenge of adopting standards of transparency and accountability.

In turn, developed countries must recognize their duty to open markets, transfer resources, and reform international institutions.

ADB has a worthy role to play in all these obligations of debtor countries as well as developed countries. And for the worthy role of ADB in the future of Asia, I congratulate ADB and I thank you.

[HOME]