First South Asian national to head ADB's South Asia Department

S. Hafeez Rahman, a Bangladesh national has been appointed Director General of Asian Development Bank's (ADB) South Asia Department, with responsibility for ADB operations in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Rahman, who took up the appointment on January 11, was formerly Director General of ADB's Pacific Department where he was responsible for ADB's work in its 14 Pacific member countries. Prior to this, he spent two years as Deputy Director General of the South Asia Department, and worked in the Department for eight years. He thus brings extensive regional knowledge to his new position.

Rahman has enjoyed a distinguished career at ADB since joining in 1992. He led the resumption of ADB operations in Vietnam in 1994, and Afghanistan in 2002-2003 and helped initiate assistance to Kazakhstan in 1995 in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. He was also Country Director in Nepal at the peak of the civil conflict from 2003-2006, and was deeply involved in ADB's stabilization and recovery assistance work to the countries hardest hit by the Asian financial crisis of 1997-99. In 1999, Rahman received a performance award from ADB for his work in helping author ADB's Poverty Reduction Strategy.

More recently, he was appointed to head ADB's Task Force during the food crisis of 2008, and is currently involved in another Task Force overseeing ADB's response to the Global Economic Crisis. He has also served as Advisor to ADB's Vice President (East) in the Office of the President.