Ten million dollars has been set aside by the government to host the Asian Development Bank’s Annual Meeting of Governors in May.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Service, Bernadette Welsh says the exposure from hosting this international meeting will be significant in addition to Fiji stamping its mark as a regional powerhouse.

Fiji will be the first developing country in the Pacific to host Asia’s biggest bank.

“Well the Asian Development Bank has what they call a green book which outlines what an ADB annual meeting normally looks like and that gives us guidance for our logistical planning.  So actually, we’re the ones that are doing all of the logistical planning and in doing so, we’ve outsourced some of the responsibilities.  We have a professional conference organizer, we have a transport provider and others and because this is the biggest meeting of its kind that Fiji has ever hosted, one of the things that we are doing is building capacity here, also in the private sector to be able to run these sorts of meetings.”

Last week, the ADB’s President Takehiko Nakao while in Fiji commended the venues and preparation in place for the international meeting which will be held from the 1^st to the 5^th of May in Nadi.

More than 3000 delegates along with a media cohort of more than 300 are expected in attendance at the ADB forum giving Fiji unprecedented international press coverage.