Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley congratulated President Nakao for the good work done to merge ADB resources with OCR. 

At the first Business Session of the 48th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) at Baku, Azerbaijan, Jaitley recalled that at the previous Annual Meeting at Astana, President Nakao had outlined a few key initiatives to make ADB more relevant and more efficient, which included a plan to seek merger of ADF resources with OCR and reforming ADB.

Jaitley expressed satisfaction that progress on both these areas has been noticed. He appreciated the role of President Nakao for the highly consultative process through which the merger of ADF resources with OCR was managed.

He said, "This was critical to securing the unanimous consent of all ADF donors." He further added, "To use the enhanced lending capacity, thus available, ADB has to build a strong project pipeline for implementation from 2017."

Jaitley also mentioned that the Mid Term Review of Strategy 2020 focused on strategic direction and efficiency of operations. The emphasis on project implementation and greater role and authority to Resident Missions are steps in the right direction.

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