News

PPP’s cannot solve all problems, and not a panacea; Public sector investment in the areas of Health and Education has to increase and ADB will continue to support such programs of the Developing Member Countries; ADB President Takehika Nakao responded to a questions raised by the trade union representatives during a dialogue session held with Civil Society Organizations at the opening of the ADB’s 50th Annual Meeting commenced today in Yokohama Japan.

President Nakao reiterated; that private sector resources and management efficiency need to be tapped and mobilized for the development needs of the member countries. Speaking from Japanese experiences he said it was the private sector entrepreneurs who pioneered the setting up of railway and other infrastructure in Japan to facilitate trade and commerce, in the early part of the twentieth century. Thereafter, many of the private undertakings were nationalized to provide public services. 

Over 100 trade union leaders from UNI and PSI joined the dialogue session along with the other CSO’s including the NGO Forum on ADB.UNI Apro Finance affiliates, from Bangladesh, India, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal and Sri Lanka are participating at the ADB annual meeting events from 4-7 May 2017 in Yokohama, Japan.

Responding to the question as to how the ADB’s giving priorities to comply with Core Labour standards, President Nakao said ADB will work with ILO to assess the impact in the areas that needs further improvements to seek better compliance, and bank intends to revise its communication policy to increase awareness of the importance of core labour standards during the consultation in formulation of ADB’ strategy 2030.  

President Nakao paused for a group photograph with the trade union participants after the dialogue session.