Nearly 5,000 delegates to arrive-by Dilshan Tharaka

Source:Dailynews

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of the 55th Annual Conference of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) which is scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka next year under the theme “Positioning a Climate Change-Adapted Green Economy for the Post-COVID -19 World”, was signed at the Finance Ministry by Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa.

This conference is scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka from May 2 to 5, next year (2022).

It was signed on behalf of the Asian Development Bank by the Director General of its South Asian Department, Kenchi Yokoyana while Finance Ministry Secretary R. Artigala signed the MoU on behalf of the Government.

The conference is expected to be attended by between 3,000 and 5,000 members from member countries, including Finance Ministers, Central Bank governors, international banking representatives, corporate executives and journalists. Speaking at the event, Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa said Sri Lanka was the second country in the region to host the Asian Development Bank Annual Conference and thanked the Asian Development Bank for giving it that opportunity. He further said that he was confident that Sri Lanka would be the best place to hold the Summit, adding that Sri Lanka, under the leadership of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, had given priority to vaccination and was successfully combating the COVID-19 epidemic. He said the Asian Development Bank has been working closely with Sri Lanka to manage the COVID-19 disaster and hoped that the conference would be a unique opportunity to overcome the post-COVID crisis.

He pointed out that the immediate need was to revive the small and medium enterprises sector which had been severely affected by the epidemic, and sought the full support of the Asian Development Bank.