Yokohama (Japan), May 07: Finance Minister AMA Muhith differed over the concept of establishing a full-fledged regional hub of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the South Asian countries in New Delhi.
Indian finance minister Arun Jaitley Saturday strongly proposed the setting up of "a regional hub in New Delhi for South Asia region so that a majority of the proposals could be processed there speedily".
He also proposed such hubs for other regions, too, while delivering his statement at the 50th Annual Meeting of the ADB Board of Governors.
When his attention was drawn to the proposal Sunday, the concluding day of the meeting, the Bangladeshi finance minister said: "I am not in favour of it."
He was of the view that country and sub-regional offices of the ADB are functioning well and so such hub is not required.
Mr Muhith also told the journalists in Yokohama that he already conveyed his opinion to the ADB president whom he met in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, at the closing press conference of the 50th annual meeting Sunday, Mr Takehiko Nakao, president of the ADB, indicated that kind of several regional hubs are already there.
"We are now trying to make several places including Delhi a kind of hub for the region," he said while replying to a question.
He mentioned that several regional hubs like Delhi for South Asian countries and Kazakhstan for Central Asia are under consideration.
"Though we have already started working on the idea of a hub, we have not announced this is a hub but we are out-posting more people," he continued.
Mr Nakao was of the view that ADB offices in Beijing, Delhi and Jakarta had already been deregulated significantly with more staff members.
The Indian finance minister argued that by setting up such regional hub, the time required for approving a proposal as well as the time lag between approval and disbursement of loans could be further reduced.
Again, at a roundtable discussion, organised as a sideline event of the annual meeting on Saturday evening, Mr Jaitley also expressed his reservation on Chinese grand connectivity project or One Belt, One Road (OBOR).
He said that they had 'some serious reservations about it, because of sovereignty issues.'
In this connection, Mr Muhith told FE Sunday that they are reviewing the initiative as Bangladesh has some interest to be a part of OBOR. He, however, wouldn't elaborate.
The 50th annual meeting of the regional bank concluded on Sunday afternoon in Yokohama, a port city of Japan.
This was for the fifth time Japan hosted the annual meeting and theme of the meeting was 'Building Together the Prosperity of Asia'.
On this connection, Mr Muhith expressed his high regards for the ADB.
"Being a regional bank, ADB is always quick to respond on crisis," he added.
He also mentioned that in 2009, when he became finance minister of the newly elected government, the ADB came quickly to assist them to overcome the negative impact of global recession.
The next year's meeting will be held in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines, while the Pacific island Fiji to host the mega-event in 2019.
To announce the formal conclusion, the closing press conference was organised where the ADB president delivered a brief statement and also replied few questions.
Though the annual meeting was formally inaugurated by Mr Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan, on Saturday morning, a number official meetings, sideline events and media briefing on different activities of the Asian ADB had started on May 3.
Governors of the ADB are the finance or development or related ministers of the member-countries while relevant secretaries or government-designated senior officials are the alternate governors.
Finance minister Mr AMA Muhith, as a governor or member of the board of governors, attended the conference.
The ADB is owned by 67 members -- 48 from the region. In 2016, ADB assistance totalled $31.7 billion, including $14 billion in co-financing.
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