ADB appoints new country director for Uzbekistan
Ms. Malvicini will lead ADB operations in Uzbekistan and supervise the development and implementation of the bank's Country Operations Business Plan for 2019-2021 and the Country Partnership Strategy. The plan and strategy aim to support the country's long-term development needs through infrastructure investment, human capital and private sector development, and improved regional integration and social inclusion, the ADB's official website reports.
"ADB has a long-standing development partnership with Uzbekistan," said Ms. Malvicini. "My priority will be to build on that partnership and work closely with the government to effectively coordinate our extensive support to deliver their reform and development agenda."
Ms. Malvicini, a national of the United States, joined ADB in 2005 and has held numerous lead positions in operations and communications. Prior to this appointment, she was ADB's Deputy Country Director and Officer-in-Charge for Uzbekistan. From 2007 to 2014, she worked as a Water Resource Specialist in ADB's South Asia Department, and until 2017, she served as Project Management Unit Head, where she managed policy dialogue; designed and managed infrastructure projects in irrigation, integrated water resources management, and flood management; and led climate change programming for several countries. She began her career at ADB as the Head of the Information and Disclosure Unit in the Department of External Relations (now called the Department of Communications).
Before joining ADB, Ms. Malvicini worked for the New York State Water Resources Institute from 1992-1995, facilitating agreements between upstream watershed communities and New York City. She also worked for Cornell University's administration as a Change Management Advisor from 1996-1999, and conducted research in the Philippines as part of the Conservation Farming for the Tropical Uplands Program from 1994-2003. Ms. Malvicini was a consultant with ADB from 2001-2005 working on core bank policies, such as ADB's first Environment Policy, framework for ADB-Government-NGO cooperation, and the bank's Public Communications Policy.
Ms. Malvicini graduated from Cornell University in New York in 2000 and Wheaton Graduate School in Illinois in 1988. She has master's degrees in agriculture (water resources management) and intercultural studies.
Ms. Malvicini replaces the outgoing Country Director Mr. Takeo Konishi, who served in Uzbekistan from 2014 and completed his mission in June 2018.
ADB has committed $7.1 billion in loans and $85.9 million in technical assistance grants to Uzbekistan since it joined the bank in 1995. In 2018, ADB committed four loans totaling $993 million to improve power generation efficiency, improve primary healthcare services, support horticulture-related farmers and businesses for fixed asset investments, and support ongoing reforms through better economic management in the country
ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 67 members-48 from the region. In 2017, ADB operations totaled $32.2 billion, including $11.9 billion in cofinancing.