Ramesh Subramaniam
Director-General of the Southeast Asia Regional Department, Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Ramesh Subramaniam has been with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for 24 years, since March 1997. He has worked in different functions and areas in over 25 countries across the various sub-regions of Asia and the Pacific. In his current capacity as Director General of the Southeast Asia Department (SERD) from July 2017, he is in charge of ADB’s relationship with the 10 countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Timor Leste, as well as all of its Sovereign engagement. He has been a member of various Global Agenda/Future Councils of the World Economic Forum (WEF) since 2012, and currently serves as the co-chair of the ASEAN Hub of WEF’s Sustainable Development Investment Partnership.
With a talent pool of over 420 globally and locally recruited staff, SERD has over $24 billion in projects under implementation. In addition, SERD also has several ongoing policy and structural reform programs with at least over $10 billion in funds disbursed and under monitoring. ADB’s new Sovereign commitments in Southeast Asia stand at around $6 billion per year in transport, energy, urban, agriculture and natural resources, human development, finance and public management sectors, besides regional cooperation and integration. In 2020, ADB’s new commitments in Southeast Asia were close to $11 billion, with more than half of it directed to address the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ramesh has also served as ADB’s Director General of Procurement, Portfolio and Financial Management Department (2015-17); Deputy Director General of SERD (2013-15); Senior Director in the Office of Regional Economic Integration (2011-13); Director of public management and financial sector (2007-10) as well as Director of urban infrastructure (2010-11) in Central and West Asia; and Principal Economist and Deputy Country Director in Indonesia (2003-07).
With a strong focus on policy and institutional reforms across the region, Ramesh’s strong interest has been in helping the region’s developing member countries reduce poverty, achieve equitable growth and attract greater private sector investments. He has led several important initiatives such as the establishment of the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund, various critical post-crisis counter-cyclical reform and restructuring programs in many countries, as well as post-disaster reconstruction projects across the Asia and the Pacific. The ASEAN Policy Network and ASEAN Innovation Hub were established under his leadership in 2017, and he oversaw the establishment of the ASEAN Catalytic Green Finance Facility.
In parallel, Ramesh has maintained strong interest in education as an instrument for change. Improving social service delivery has been a key part of his support for public sector reforms in many countries. He considers serving the needy through the development profession as a highly noble endeavor. Outside of ADB, he is involved in a range of service activities in livelihood, health care and education, with the aim of promoting basic yet fundamental human values of Love, Truth, Peace, Right Conduct, and Non-violence in society overall.
Ramesh has an MA in Economics from University of Madras, India (1988); and a Ph.D. in Economics from McMaster University, Canada, where he was also a Lecturer (1990-93). He has been a Research Fellow on Industry at University of St. Andrews in United Kingdom and Rockefeller Fellow at Yale University Economic Growth Center from January 1994 to March 1997.