The 56th Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) board of governors meeting kicks off in Incheon, South Korea, today. Photo: E. De Castro/ REUTERS

The 56th Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) board of governors meeting kicks off in Incheon, South Korea, today.

The four-day meeting will focus on efforts to regain growth across Asia in the COVID-19 aftermath. It will be the bank’s first major in-person gathering since the pandemic’s outbreak, with over 5,000 officials from 68 member states, including central bank governors and finance ministers.

The ADB was established in 1966 and is headquartered in Manila. Similar to the World Bank, it focuses on economic development, including through providing low interest loans for infrastructure projects in developing countries. However, the ADB has been criticized for not considering some of its projects’ negative impacts.

The South Korean and Japanese finance ministers will also meet on the sidelines—the first such bilateral meeting in seven years—amidst a recent rapprochement between the two countries. The South Korean government will also hostthe ASEAN+3 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors, as well as a trilateral meeting with representatives of China and Japan. The ADB governors will likely discuss ways to mitigate rising U.S. interest rates and overcome increasing geopolitical tensions.

South Korea will also attempt to promote its own national efforts at the event, such as its climate innovation hub, which will launch next year, in cooperation with the ADB, and provide a hub for displaying the country’s green technology industries, aimed at developing countries.