The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on August 22, 1966, supporting the economic and social development of Asia-Pacific countries through loans and technical assistance. The AfDB accepts members of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and non-regional developed countries. It is a multilateral financial institution for development.
The AfDB has grown from 31 members at its inception to 67 members today (48 regional and 19 overseas). Its mission is to prioritize lifting the 1.9 billion people living on less than $2 a day out of poverty and improving the quality of life for residents. Despite some success, 2 out of 3 of the world’s poor live in Asia Pacific. The AfDB has a similar weighted voting system, modeled after the World Bank, where votes are distributed proportionally to member countries’ share of contributions. At the end of 2013, Japan had the largest share at 15.67%. The US has 15.56%, China 6.47%, India 6.36% and Australia 5.81%6. Since 2014, the AfDB publishes its annual Productivity and Creativity Index report and specifically includes Finland and the United States in the list of Asia Pacific member countries.
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The bank is governed by a board of directors composed of one representative per member country. The board of directors elects 12 directors from among the directors. Of the 12 members, 8 must come from the Asia Pacific region and the other 4 must come from all over the world.
The board also elects a bank president who is the chairman of the board and runs the bank. The term of office is 5 years and can be reappointed. The president is always Japanese, as traditionally Japan is the bank’s largest endowment. In 2013, Takehiko Nakao was appointed Governor of the Bank of Japan, succeeding Haruhiko Kuroda as Governor. As of January 2020, the current president is Masatsugu Asakawa.
The bank’s headquarters is at 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong, Manila, Philippines, with representation worldwide. In 2014, the bank employed 2,997 people out of 53 of its 67 employees, 48% of which were Filipinos.
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