1. Introduction
● Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. It is a great honor to host the Final IDA20 Replenishment Meeting when the world needs IDA most, although it is unfortunate that we could not welcome all of you in Tokyo. I would like to express my sincere appreciation and respect to the IDA team and all participants for their efforts.
● The world continues to face an unprecedented crisis due to Covid-19. We are in danger of losing the achievements towards ending extreme poverty and sharing prosperity. Now is the time for global solidarity.
● IDA, which addresses development issues across the globe, is more important than ever to ensure a green, resilient and inclusive recovery from the pandemic. This is why, Japan initiated the discussion on advancing IDA20 by one year and decided to host the final meeting.
● Before pledging Japan's contribution, I would like to briefly mention three issues.
2. Global Health
● First, on global health. Seeing a surge of the new variant, we must quickly deliver vaccines and medicines, including to developing countries, to stop new variants from emerging.
● This pandemic is not the last one. We must further strengthen prevention, preparedness, and response, including through promoting universal health coverage.
3. Climate Change and Natural Disasters
● Second, on climate change and natural disasters. Climate change has made natural disasters more frequent and severe. Managing disaster risk, as adaptation, is therefore, more critical than ever. I am from Iwate, where the Great Earthquake hit most severely 10 years ago. We have achieved “build back better” by resilient infrastructure and the spirit of never giving up. Japan stands ready to contribute its knowledge and experience.
4. Debt Issues in developing countries
● Third, on debt. It is important to enhance debt transparency, through borrowers’ capacity building, creditors’ data sharing, and debt data reconciliation. It enables both borrowers and creditors to make informed decisions. This leads to stable investment inflows, more sustainable borrowing, and ultimately sustainable growth. We expect World Bank Group’s leading role.
5. IDA's Role and Pledge
● These important agendas are included in IDA20 Policy Commitments and Japan expects them to be addressed.
● To support IDA, Japan commits to increase its contribution by 6.9% to 377 billion Japanese yen, which is equivalent to about 3.4 billion US dollars, the largest contribution ever, achieving the share at 13.8% of 24.9 billion.
● I encourage other donor countries to make significant contributions too. Let’s deliver a message of hope to the world by successfully concluding the IDA replenishment advanced for the first time in history.