Closer APEC-World Bank-ADB Cooperation to Address Joint Economic Growth and Development Goals

APEC, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have agreed to combine their comparative advantages to work together on initiatives relating to poverty reduction and economic stability.

The commitment was made at the first ever APEC Roundtable Discussion with international financial institutions on August 19, in Phuket, Thailand.

Chair of the meeting, Mr. Tej Bunnag, said the new era of cooperation would increase the efficiency of all organizations and avoid duplication of effort.

"APEC's focus on economic growth and the World Bank and the ADB's focus on development makes our cooperation both natural and imperative," Mr. Bunnag said.

"The World Bank and ADB have a wealth of research and expertise that can be leveraged through the sharing of training materials, work programs and information for project planning.

"APEC has useful forums and mechanisms to complement work undertaken by the World Bank and ADB. The APEC Leaders? and Ministerial Meetings bring together the senior political decision makers in APEC economies. These APEC events will be very useful in obtaining high-level commitment for issues of common concern to APEC and the World Bank and ADB."

Mr. Bunnag said the Roundtable between APEC, the World Bank and the ADB covered the four areas of improving counter terrorism efforts, addressing the social dimensions of globalization, building a knowledge based economy and integration into the global economy.

"Capacity building is one of the highest priorities for APEC, the World bank and the ADB in our efforts to strengthen our increasingly integrated Asia-Pacific economy," Mr. Bunnag said.

"The representatives from the World Bank, the ADB and APEC agreed that joint APEC, World Bank and ADB projects must have real impact on the ground.

"Reports and studies in themselves are of limited utility in addressing real problems such as poverty reduction. These need to be translated and customized into specific solutions for each economy to apply to its particular set of problems and to craft appropriate solutions."

The World Bank and ADB were invited to engage in the activities of APEC's Social Safety Nets Capacity Building Network. An essential part of this work includes work to build the capacity of the informal sector to deal with globalization and be integrated into the economic mainstream. The World Bank and ADB were also invited to participate in APEC's Knowledge Based Economy-related activities at a committee and working group level, and the Innovative APEC workshop.

The World Bank was represented by Mr Peter Stephens and the Asian Development Bank was represented by Mr Xianbin Yao.