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President Mori visits the Asian Development Bank

Palikir, Pohnpei (FSM Information Services): November 2, 2011 - On October 26, 2011 President Emanuel Mori visited the Asian Development Bank headquarters in Manila, Philippines to discuss ways to strengthen the relationship between the FSM Government and the Asian Development Bank as well as ADB's assistance to the FSM.

Upon his arrival, President Mori was given the ceremonial welcome afforded to Heads of State who visit the Bank. President Mori was welcomed by ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda along with Executive Director Phil Bowen who represents the FSM in the ADB Board of Directors and other members of the senior management team at the Bank.

During the day President Mori and his delegation held meetings with the ADB President, the Executive Director and Mr. Stephen Gross, Vice President for Operations 2 which is East Asia Department, Southeast Asia Department, Pacific Department, and Central Operations Services.

President Mori and his delegation also met with the head of the Pacific Department, Mr. Robert Wihtol and key staff working on FSM. The meeting focused on the loans and Technical Assistance (TA) that are currently active and those in the 2012-2014 pipeline.

President Mori's interest in re-activating the Consultative Group of Donors Meetings (CG) was met with enthusiasm from the ADB side. The CG Meeting brings together FSM's multilateral and bilateral development partners around the same table to discuss development challenges facing the nation in order to better align their assistance to meeting the nation's development challenges. The second half of May 2012 was discussed as a possible date of the next CG meeting.

Since joining the ADB in 1990, the FSM has received 8 loans for a total of $75.1 million and 42 technical assistance projects worth $24.1 million. Two of these loans which are worth $19.0 million and 1 TA project worth $.8 million are active.