By Makereta Komai, PACNEWS Editor in Milan, Italy
The Asia Development Bank (ADB) is stepping up its presence in the Pacific to be closer its 12 Pacific Developing Member Countries.
Apart from Suva, Port Moresby and Sydney, ADB will set up a fully fledged office in Solomon Islands later this year.
And, a possible office to serve the North Pacific is also on the cards, according to the ADB’s new Director General overseeing its work in the Pacific, Emma Veve.
“Solomons is now the ADB’s second largest portfolio. The value of the ongoing projects in Solomons is second only to Papua New Guinea until Fiji.
“At the moment, we don’t have a resident mission there, just what we call a Pacific Coordination Office with two locals looking after the office. They have been amazing in getting good engagement with government and helping us better understand how things work locally., Veve told PACNEWS in Milan on the sidelines of the ADB Governors 58th Annual Meeting.
The new office will be headed by a country director.
‘We’re looking for who that person should be right now. And later this year, we hope to be able to open that and get it up and running.
Similarly, the ADB has hired a North Pacific advisor based in Manila to explore the possibility of presence in that region.
“It is a same level job as a country director, but he’ll sit in Manila and look after the three North Pacific country relationships for us. At the moment, that was being done by a more junior person, sort of as their full-time job.
“For ADB, this will bring a higher level of engagement. Part of their initial job will also be to assess, do we need an office in the North Pacific or does it make sense? If so, where and when? And to start that thinking and internal discussion about an office, explained Veve.
Veve, who is not new to the Pacific having served in different senior roles at the Bank and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, will be tasked with the delivery of the ADB’s new vision and strategy for the Pacific – under the new Pacific Approach.
“At the moment, we’re wrapping up our evaluation of how the last Pacific Approach went. We’ve had some internal strategising to get our Vice President comfortable with the direction we’re heading in. Then we will hit the road in the Pacific to talk to all of the countries and as many development partners as we can get a hold of to make sure the strategic focus is clear and our complementarity to other donors is clear.
“We hope to get it up to our board by the middle of next year, Veve told PACNEWS.
In Milan this week, Pacific Member Countries through their bilateral discussions and engagements with ADB and other development partners have hinted on what they want the ADB to focus on in the new 2026-2030 strategy.
“I think there is really good alignment between what the partners said. We have similar core things to focus on – with building resilience and developing the private sector at core.
“But there’s a lot of other things as well and some of them mentioned in the business session. Particularly things around correspondent banking and finance sector and making that work well. I think we’re hearing a lot about the importance of making use of digital technologies in the Pacific. That’s something the Pacific has been a little bit slower perhaps and needs a bit more attention, said Veve.
It’s more how we are do things and making that more suitable for the Pacific, according to ADB’s head of the Pacific Office.
“Capacity, is constant issue in the Pacific. The bank has been around 50 plus years in the Pacific and we’ve been trying to build capacity from the beginning but its thinking of different ways to do it that suit specific needs of particular countries. In some countries we’re centralising our project support. In others we’re bringing in external specialists to help.
“We’re now looking at working with regional organisations and national organisations like public service commissions. For example, looking at training in things like financial management, project management. So, it will be useful across not just our projects but across all of the government projects, Veve told PACNEWS.
“It will be capacity development that it is more sustainable, more owned by countries and more in use rather than just coming in and training a lot of these new things. While we do have a Pacific Approach, we’re trying to build in more country flavour and recognition that country needs are sometimes quite different.
Taking up her role in February this year, Veve will lead the delivery of the forthcoming Pacific Approach 2026–2030, which will serve as ADB’s overall country partnership strategy for 12 of its 14 Pacific developing members: Cook Islands, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. She will also lead the implementation of ADB’s individual country partnership strategies for Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
“I am delighted to be back working in the Pacific, and I’m deeply committed to helping shape the new Pacific Approach, which will serve as ADB’s guide to assisting the Pacific developing members achieve their development goals,” said in February when she was appointed.
