The Board of the African D evelopment Bank (AfDB) has app roved Côte d’Ivoire’s application to host the next Annual Meetings which will ta k e place from 27-28 May 2010 in the Ivorian city of Abidjan.
According to resolutions adopted at the end of the Bank’s meetings in Dakar, the Board of Governors reaffirmed that the headquarters of the Bank shall remain in
Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
However, it noted that the situation in the country was not conducive for an imm ediate return of the institution to its headquarters, and therefore extended the
institution’s Temporary Relocation to Tunis for another year.
The Annual Meetings of the AfDB Group ended on Thursday, after two days of inten sive discussion on pressing economic and development issues and the approval of t he 2008 Annual Report of the Bank Group, as well as its work programme for 2009,
a statement form the Bank said.
Governors, usually finance, economy ministers, representing 77 member-countries of the Bank Group also examined and approved a number of programmes and proposal s for implementation by the management.
It said key among these was the proposal for the mobilization of resources for t he Sixth General Capital Increase of the non-concessional AfDB window.
The Board of Governors authorized its Consultative Committee “to initiate with a ll possible expediency consultation with member states of the Bank leading, shou l d it be needed, to a plan for a general capital increase designed to enable the B ank to meet its ordinary capital requirements in the future”, the Board of Gover n ors’ resolution said. A review of the report will be done during the next Annual
Meetings.
The statement said the Governors approved the application of the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg to become a member of the Bank Group and considered the progress repor t on the implementation of the Republic of Turkey’s membership application approv e d by the Board of Governors last year during the 2008 Annual Meetings held in Ma p uto, Mozambique.
In their various interventions, the Governors commended the Bank Group’s managem ent for the initiative it took to help the regional members countries cope with t he current crisis.
The AfDB, like other multilateral development banks, should play a bigger role i n the global efforts to mitigate the impact of the crisis since they are better a cquainted with the situation on the ground in the countries where they operate, t he statement said.
AfDB President Donald Kaberuka highlighted some of the outcomes of the two-day s essions with regards to the operational, financial and institutional activities o f the Bank Group.
He noted that there was a general agreement that the Bank must scale up its acti vities and work intelligently with other partners to meet the growing needs of i t s regional member countries in the difficult context they face.
