China on Saturday proposed four steps that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) could take to further promote inclusive development in the Asia-Pacific region.
"Looking to the future, I hope that based on the development experience of the past 50 years, ADB can keep pace with times and engage in innovation, and actively support the promotion of inclusive development in the Asia-Pacific region," said Vice Minister of China's Ministry of Finance Yu Weiping, who represented Minister of China's Ministry of Finance Liu Kun at the business session of the 51st annual meeting of the ADB Board of Governors.
Yu said ADB can "innovate development strategies to promote high-quality development" in the region. Poverty reduction is one of the key goals of ADB, but it should not be the only one, Yu said.
"With more and more developing members entering the ranks of middle-income countries, ADB should strengthen its cooperation with middle-income countries to help them achieve high quality development while supporting low-income countries, small island countries, and vulnerable countries."
Yu said ADB can also "deepen regional cooperation and promote the building of a community of shared future for mankind."
"We support ADB's continued efforts to increase support for regional cooperation, and encourage ADB to continue to set long-term funding targets for regional cooperation and improve the linkages among regional cooperation mechanisms such as the Belt and Road Initiative, in order to achieve shared benefits through extensive consultation and joint collaboration and build a community of shared future for mankind."
Yu said ADB needs to "increase financing to support infrastructure interconnectivity" in the region.
"We encourage ADB to make full use of the capital advantages from ADF-OCR merger to expand the scale of loans and provide more financial support for developing members," Yu said, referring to ADB's Asian Development Fund and ADB's Ordinary Capital Resources.
China supports ADB to fully leverage its private sector operation, develop new loan products and tools, and catalyze more private capital to support infrastructure interconnectivity and long-term growth, Yu said.
Another proposal that Yu suggested for ADB is to "expand partnerships to enhance overall development benefits and levels" in the Asia-Pacific region.
Yu encouraged ADB to further expand its cooperation with new multilateral development banks such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Shanghai-based New Development Bank and other financial institutions.
By doing so, Yu said the scale of joint financing could be expanded, and the overall development benefits of the region will be enhanced by more actively carrying out tripartite and multi-party cooperation.
Yu said China will continue to support the development of ADB. "We will continue to deepen China's all-round cooperation with the ADB to jointly contribute to the sustainable development of the Asia-Pacific region and the world."
Yu hailed ADB, saying it is an important multilateral development bank in the region.
Over the years, Yu said, ADB has made prominent contribution to its developing members' endeavor in tackling various challenges, poverty reduction and development.
"ADB supports the cooperation between its regional cooperation programs and the Belt and Road Initiative, promotes the process of regional cooperation and integration, and serves the building of a community of shared future for the Asia-Pacific region."
Yu said the key to achieving inclusive development lies in people, in that all people should participate in the development process and share in the benefits of development.
"The funding, technology and knowledge of ADB are critical to achieving inclusive development in the region," Yu added.
