The chief economist at Israel’s Finance Ministry, Shira Greenberg, participated last week in the 56th annual conference of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Incheon, South Korea, as a representative of the State of Israel.
At the conference, Greenberg met with senior officials from the bank—including its secretary, Muhammad Ahsan Khan—and the member states to discuss cooperation with Israel. ADB is a regional development bank modeled closely on the World Bank,
The participation of the chief economist in the annual conference of the ADB was described as a significant step in the process of Israel joining the bank, which is expected to be completed in the coming months, after several years of a process led by the chief economist in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry.
Joining the ADB will expand the “strong partnerships that the State of Israel has built with other international financial institutions,” including the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank and the ASEAN Infrastructure Investment Bank, said the Finance Ministry.
In these institutions, the ministry said, Israel contributed to a variety of partnerships in the fields of cyber, water, agriculture and renewable energy, with the aim of transferring Israeli knowledge, technology and expertise to the public and private sectors in emerging markets.