How We're Organized

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.
ADB President: Masatsugu Asakawa
High resolution

Masatsugu Asakawa

Masatsugu Asakawa is the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Chairperson of ADB’s Board of Directors. He was elected President by ADB’s Board of Governors and assumed office on 17 January 2020.

11 December 2023 Australia's Treasurer, President Asakawa underscore partnership

President Masatsugu Asakawa and the Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Australia Parliament House and ADB Governor Jim Chalmers MP, in a conference call on 11 December, underscored the importance of the partnership between the two institutions. The two leaders, recognizing the shared ambitions for the Pacific and the broader Asia region, emphasized further strengthening collaboration. President Asakawa highlighted ADB’s evolution agenda. He drew on examples such as the success of the Capital Adequacy Framework review, the realignment of expertise through the new operating model, and the scaling up of climate finance through platforms such as IF-CAP. Executive Director Rachel Thompson joined the call.

08 December 2023 ADB, JICA sign agreement to establish LEAP 2 fund

President Masatsugu Asakawa and JICA President Akihiko Tanaka on 8 December signed an agreement to establish the Leading Asia's Private Infrastructure Fund 2 (LEAP 2) with JICA contributing up to $1.5 billion and ADB acting as the fund manager. At the signing ceremony in Tokyo, President Asakawa emphasized the need for high-quality and sustainable infrastructure under the growing severity of climate change impacts and added that LEAP 2 will help the region meet this challenge by filling financing gaps for urgently needed infrastructure projects through the mobilization of private sector capital. President Asakawa also met with Japan’s Minister of Finance and Minister of State for Financial Services and ADB Governor Shunichi Suzuki to express his appreciation for Japan's $600 million contribution to IF-CAP announced at COP28, which substantially increased IF-CAP's financing guarantees to over $1 billion. Read the news release.

07 December 2023 President Asakawa underscores good governance to achieving climate ambitions at International Anticorruption Day

ADB celebrated International Anticorruption Day with an interactive exhibit and knowledge-sharing session organized by its Office of Anticorruption and Integrity from 5 to 7 December. President Masatsugu Asakawa, in his welcome message, reaffirmed ADB's commitment to upholding the highest ethical standards. He emphasized that as the region’s climate bank, it is ADB's duty to protect climate projects from corruption by practicing transparency, integrity, and honesty. The Green and Clean: Protecting Climate Finance from Corruption session included Bradley Hope, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, New York Times bestselling author of the Billion Dollar Whale and former Wall Street Journal reporter.

05 December 2023 ADB participates in ASEAN+3 Economic Cooperation and Financial Stability Forum in Japan

At the Second ASEAN+3 Economic Cooperation and Financial Stability Forum on 5 December in Kanazawa, Japan, President Masatsugu Asakawa, in a recorded speech, underscored the importance of strong regional cooperation in meeting the challenges facing the Asia and Pacific region. He emphasized the vital role of cooperation to ensure macrofinancial stability, promote international trade and investment, build supply chain resilience, and address the climate crisis.

05 December 2023 COP28: ADB pushes for a just energy transition and climate resilience

During the Energy, Industry, and Just Transition Day, ADB's Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM) was featured as the key initiative to reduce CO2 under the managed phase out of coal.

President Masatsugu Asakawa was joined by Indonesia’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) Arifin Tasrif, and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Managing Director Ravi Menon at the high-level session, where ADB, MAS, and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet signed a memorandum of understanding to secure $2 billion in support of the region’s energy transition. ADB and MEMR also signed a separate agreement to advance Indonesia’s just and affordable energy transition. Prior to these, a framework agreement for the first ETM transaction, which aims to retire the Cirebon-1 coal-fired power plant nearly seven years ahead of its projected closure, was signed between ADB and the Indonesian Government. Also, VP Fatima and Philippine Department of Energy Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella separately opened a panel discussion on driving energy transition in a market-based power sector.

At the joint ADB and Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action session, President Asakawa launched the new Climate Resilient Fiscal Planning publication. The Ministries of Finance, ADB, and the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action discussed how climate-resilient fiscal planning can scale up and align finance with adaptation and resilience.

President Asakawa opened the Scaling Up Local Investments in Adaptation That Leaves No One Behind - Launch of Community Resilience Partnership Program (CRPP) Investment Fund and CRPP Small Grant Window event. ADB, in partnership with the Green Climate Fund, launched the CRPP Investment Fund of $120 million to scale up the implementation of local adaptation solutions through investments in adaptive social protection, community-driven development, resilient livelihoods, and climate risk-informed decentralization.

Masatsugu Asakawa is the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Chairperson of ADB’s Board of Directors. He was elected President by ADB’s Board of Governors and assumed office on 17 January 2020. In August 2021, he was reelected for a 5-year term starting on 24 November 2021.

Under Mr. Asakawa’s leadership, ADB made significant contributions to the region’s COVID-19 pandemic response and recovery planning with a $20 billion comprehensive response package and $9 billion Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility. He also played a key role in rolling out a series of new and innovative financing initiatives—including an Energy Transition Mechanism — to spur the region’s low-carbon development and elevated ADB’s 2030 cumulative climate financing ambition to $100 billion as ADB continues to focus on the battle against climate change.

Prior to joining ADB, he served as Special Advisor to Japan’s Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, and has a close-to-four decades’ career at the Ministry of Finance with diverse professional experience that cuts across both domestic and international fronts.

In the immediate aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, Mr. Asakawa, in his capacity as Executive Assistant to Prime Minister Taro Aso, took part in the first G20 Leaders’ Summit Meeting in November 2008. He was instrumental in orchestrating a globally coordinated financial package to abate the financial crisis, including a $100 billion loan from Japan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Then in 2016, in his capacity as Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs, he took on a leading role for the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ meeting in Sendai under the Japanese presidency, where a sustainable and inclusive development agenda was extensively discussed.

Most recently, he served as Finance Deputy for the G20 meetings under the Japanese presidency, playing a pivotal role for the success of the G20 Osaka Summit as well as the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ meeting in Fukuoka. Some of his outstanding achievements in Osaka include the endorsement by the G20 Leaders of the “G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment” and the “G20 Shared Understanding on the Importance of UHC Financing in Developing Countries”. Before these, he had occupied various prominent positions within the Finance Ministry, including director positions in charge of development policy issues, foreign exchange markets, and international tax policy.

Mr. Asakawa’s professional experience extends beyond the realms of the Japanese government. Most notably, he served as Chief Advisor to ADB President Kimimasa Tarumizu between 1989 and 1992, during which time he spearheaded the creation of a new office focused on strategic planning. Also, he had frequent engagement with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in such positions as Chair for Committee on Fiscal Affairs (2011–2016). Furthermore, he was a senior staff at the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF (1996–2000). In the meantime, he gave lectures as Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Economic Science, Saitama University (2006–2009), and at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo (2012–2015).

Mr. Asakawa obtained his BA from University of Tokyo (Economics Faculty) in 1981, and MPA from Princeton University, USA, in 1985.

President in the News

Flickr Photostream

ADB, Fiji Discuss Support for Inclusive Growth and Enhanced Climate Resilience by 186525160@N08
President Masatsugu Asakawa and ADB delegation stand in front of the Norwegian Parliament in Oslo with hosts from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. by 186525160@N08
President Masatsugu Asakawa meets Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in Oslo. by 186525160@N08
President Masatsugu Asakawa speaking at the ODI’s Multilateral Development Bank Leaders Series on 21 June in London. by 186525160@N08
President Masatsugu Asakawa meets with Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's (FCDO) Andrew Mitchell, MP, State Minister for Development and Africa and ADB Governor. by 186525160@N08
President Masatsugu Asakawa meets with EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso at their new headquarters in London. by 186525160@N08
Celebrating 25 years of the ADB-Tajikistan development partnership by 186525160@N08
TJRM inauguration with Tajikistan Prime Minister Kohir Rasulzoda by 186525160@N08
Inaugurating a solar-powered pumped water supply system in Rudaki District by 186525160@N08
Inaugurating a solar-powered pumped water supply system in Rudaki District by 186525160@N08
President Masatsugu Asakawameets with Tajikistan President; leads 25-year partnership celebration in Dushanbe by 186525160@N08
President Masatsugu Asakawa affirms ADB’s support to scale up Kazakhstan’s access to global climate finance by 186525160@N08