TOKYO (Reuters) -The Asian Development Bank said on Monday its president, Masatsugu Asakawa, had announced his intention to step down from his position, effective Feb. 23, 2025.
The Yomiuri newspaper reported earlier on Monday that Japan is set to back former top financial diplomat Masato Kanda as a candidate for the next president of the ADB.
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said in a statement that Japan hoped to promptly nominate someone most appropriate as a candidate.
The finance ministry declined to comment on the reported nomination of Kanda.
A former top Japanese currency diplomat, Asakawa became ADB president in January 2020 and oversaw the Manila-based lender's launch of measures to help the region's economies deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The election of the ADB's new president will follow "an open, transparent, and merit-based process" in accordance with the lender's charter, the development lender said in a statement.
(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya; editing by Christian Schmollinger, Tomasz Janowski and Mark Heinrich)