DUSHANBE, April 22, 2013, Asia-Plus — Ministers and senior government officials, business leaders, fellow international institutions, and civil society representatives are set to gather in Noida, India from May 2-5 May for the 46th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which will focus on empowerment through development, according to the ADB Tajikistan Resident Mission (TJRM).
The anticipated 4,000 participants, including global media, will discuss how vulnerable groups can better access economic opportunities and social services like health and education. Asia and the Pacific’s booming economies have seen a dramatic reduction in poverty over the past two decades but the region is still home to two thirds of the world’s extreme poor, and there has been a steep rise in inequality of incomes and access to basic services.
Tajikistan Delegation is expected to be headed by Matloubkhon Davlatov, First Deputy Prime Minister, who is ADB Governor for Tajikistan, and also comprise Sharif Rahimzoda, Minister of Economic Development and Trade.
This year’s Governors’ Seminar, Beyond Factory Asia: Fueling Growth in a Changing World, will examine the future role of factory-driven manufacturing in the region, alternative growth sources, and how individual countries can move up the production value chain to avoid becoming mired in a middle income trap.
Seminars will look at the challenge of creating productive, meaningful jobs in Asia, the steps needed to quicken and deepen regional integration ― including South Asia’s fast expanding links to its Southeast Asian neighbors ― and the measures needed to mobilize more long term finance for Asia’s huge infrastructure needs. Sessions will be held on development aid, and ways to boost falling levels of assistance; as well as how to improve the delivery of public services to poor and marginalized groups; and financing universal health care.
The potential threat to Asia’s future growth from the ongoing economic slump in the US and Europe will come under the microscope, while a new ADB study on disaster risk management will look at how the region can better protect itself from increasingly severe and frequent natural calamities ― which have killed more than 70,000 people a year in the past decade and caused direct annual economic losses of around $35 million.
