Journalism and Good Governance in the Asia-Pacific Region

Introduction

Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My main aim is to outline for you some of the plans that we have at the Asian Development Bank Institute to support the activities of journalists who are working to contribute to the development of the Asia-Pacific region.

The ADB Institute, based here in Tokyo, is a subsidiary of the Asian Development Bank which is headquartered in Manila. The Institute carries out research, and supports capacity building and training, to promote growth and development across the Asia-Pacific region. Our broadest goal is to support ADB achieve the vision, as ADB's President Chino often emphasizes, of "an Asian and Pacific region free of poverty."

Incidentally, President Chino will be in Tokyo next Monday to give a luncheon address at the National Press Club. He will talk about a range of development issues in Asia, including the current economic outlook, China's role, and challenges across the region.

Against this background, I'd like to take the opportunity today to talk about three main issues:

• About the challenge of tackling poverty across the Asia-Pacific region;
• About the role of the media in responding to this challenge;
• And about some new plans that the ADB Institute has to support the media in developing countries in the region.

Download this Speech [ PDF 90.5KB | 16 pages ].