Mr Liqun Jin, Vice-President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) arrived in Uzbekistan on 30 June with four-day visit.

Mr Jin will attend roundtable meeting of the Arab Coordination Group, which will take in Tashkent on 3-5 July 2007. Arab Coordination Group includes the Islamic Development Bank, the Saudi Fund for Development, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, the OPEC Fund for International Development, and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development.

The ADB has firm partnership with IDB within its Central Asian Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) programme. But the bank also tries to strengthen relations with Arabic financial institutions and this roundtable serves to strengthen such partnership.

It is expected that ADB vice-president will meet ADB Governor from Uzbekistan Saidahmad Rakhimov and other senior Uzbek officials. On 30 June, Mr Jin met Uzbek Minister of Foreign Economic Relations, Investment and Trade Elyor Ganiev.

The discussions will focus on development goals of the Uzbek government, ADB’s contribution, realization of reform programmes and role of the ADB in improvement of well-being of Uzbek population.

Mr Jin said Uzbekistan is important member of the ADB. Uzbekistan and the ADB are going to strengthen their cooperation to support economic growth of Uzbekistan to achieve well-being of population of the country.

On 1 July, Mr Jin visit railway rehabilitation project in Samarkand and met leadership of Samarkand region to receive information on the ADB’s role in development of country’s infrastructure.

This is the third visit of ADB representatives to Uzbekistan in 2007, which shows intend of the ADB to strengthen cooperation with Uzbekistan.

Mr Liqun Jin is the Vice-President (Operations 1) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He joined ADB in August 2003.

Mr Jin is responsible for operations of South Asia Department, Central and West Asia Department, and the Private Sector Operations Department.

Prior to joining ADB, Mr Jin was the Vice Minister of Finance of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), in charge of the budget for administrative expenses of education, science, culture, and external economic affairs. In that capacity, he served as Alternate Governor for the PRC at ADB, the World Bank Group and the Global Environment Facility.

He has been active in international economic affairs for almost two decades, particularly since the Asian financial crisis in 1997. He has worked on a number of bilateral and multilateral economic and financial forums, such as the China-US Joint Economic Committee, China-UK Economic and Finance Dialogue, APEC Finance Ministers’ Meeting, ASEAN Plus Three and G-20. In addition, Mr Jin was a member of the State Monetary Policy Committee and the Anti-Terrorism Committee of the PRC.

After serving as Alternative Executive Director at the World Bank Group for four years, Mr Jin was appointed Director General of the World Bank Department of the Ministry of Finance in 1995. The same year, he was promoted to Assistant Minister of Finance and in 1998 became Vice Minister of Finance. He was responsible for supervising the PRC’s financial sector and raising funds from both international and domestic markets.

Mr Jin holds an M. A. degree in English Literature from Beijing Foreign Studies University. He was also a Hubert Humphrey Fellow in the Economics Graduate Program at Boston University from 1987 to 1988. He joined the Ministry of Finance in 1980 after completing his graduate program from Beijing Foreign Languages Institute (the current Beijing Foreign Studies University).

He writes extensively on economics and finance, and has published a number of books in these areas.

Uzbekistan joined ADB in 1995. Cumulative lending to the country stands at US$974.9 million for 23 projects, including projects in the educational sector (27%), agriculture and natural resources (25%), transportation and communication (19%). ADB has also provided 67 technical assistance grants to Uzbekistan totaling US$34 million.

ADB is dedicated to reducing poverty in the Asia and Pacific region through pro-poor sustainable economic growth, social development, and good governance. Established in 1966, it is owned by 67 members - 48 from the region. In 2006, it approved loans and technical assistance totaling $8.5 billion and $242 million, respectively.