ADB must fast-track project approvals: Muhith

Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday said the Asian Development Bank is committing and disbursing more funds for Bangladesh, but the lender is still very slow in giving approvals to projects.

"If a project is discussed today, it takes at least two years to start disbursing the funds," Muhith told The Daily Star in an interview on the sidelines of the annual meeting of ADB’s board of governors in Frankfurt.

"The ADB will have to bring down the time and I will talk on the issue [at the governors' meeting]," he said.

Earlier, finance ministers of South Asian countries at a meeting discussed connectivity and economic development of the region.

"There are bottlenecks in the corridors and we talked about how to develop the corridors among Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal," Muhith said after the meeting.

The minister said the ADB is working on the issue and they have prepared a plan by engaging a consultant.

The issues discussed yesterday include moving towards cities of the future, Asian-European approaches to finance and infrastructure, and mobilising youths to contribute to achieving sustainable development goals.

Mayors of Frankfurt, Yokohama, Bandung and Colombo took part in the discussion on future cities. 

They urged the ADB to finance infrastructure projects in the cities of developing countries.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a reception said her country would double its contribution to the climate fund by 2020.

"The ADB finance has to be sustainable and for long-term; short-term financing is no longer needed at this time," Merkel told the gathering.

She also said economic growth has to be socially and environmentally sustainable.

Merkel also stressed decent working conditions and supply chain management. "We are ready to cooperate with you (ADB)," she said.

On the refugee crisis, Merkel urged the developed nations to find out the root causes of the problem.

ADB, GERMANY JOIN FORCES ON CLIMATE ACTION

In their ‘Frankfurt Declaration’, the ADB and the German federal ministry for economic cooperation and development agreed to join forces for progress on climate action and technical and vocational education and training (TVET). The declaration spells out the intention by the ADB and Germany to launch an Asia Climate Finance Facility in 2017, according to the ADB.

The facility will leverage public and private sector investment in climate change mitigation and adaptation in support of the goals of the COP 21 Paris Agreement.

The facility will assist developing countries in Asia and the Pacific through new and innovative co-financing measures, including guarantees and climate risk insurance.

The ADB and the German ministry also signed a declaration of intent to deepen and increase cooperation to promote TVET in Asia. The joint effort will aim to better match education and training with the skills that employers are demanding and boost workplace-based training.

They aim to foster inclusive growth including the economic empowerment of women, which is in the spirit of the women's economic empowerment initiative launched by Germany during German G7 presidency.

The ADB is one of the largest multilateral donors for vocational training in developing Asia. Among the activities planned for the coming year is a joint regional vocational training conference.

Germany is ADB's biggest European shareholder and in 2015, it was the biggest bilateral co-financier of ADB projects. This year is the first time that the ADB's annual meeting is being held in Germany.