Shanghai, China, 18 May – Mozambique is to stage the next annual general meeting of the ADB in May 2008, senior officials from the pan-African bank have announced.

Mozambican Minister of Planning Aiuba Cuereneia told Portuguese news agency Lusa on Wednesday that his country had applied to host next year’s AGM of the ADB.

The minister was speaking in Shanghai, where the ADB was holding this year’s annual board meeting gathering finance and economy ministers and central bank governors from 53 African states. Some 24 non-member states of the ADB were also represented at the meeting in China’s economic hub.

The ADB began operating in Mozambique in 1977 and had provided funds of US$ 1.3 billion to Maputo by the end of last year. The bank is currently negotiating a project portfolio worth US$ 190 million with the Mozambican government. (macauhub)