Naya said the Asian Development Bank has agreed to the proposal by Hawaii and the U.S. Treasury to hold the meeting here. The Asian Development Bank meeting is expected to be several time larger than the PBEC meeting in both numbers and importance. Naya and Fishman said they expect more than 2,500 delegates. He said he did not yet have an estimate of the event's potential economic impact. The bank's 59 member countries take turns in being host to the meeting.
Next year is the United States' turn.
The meeting initially was to be held in Seattle. This year's event in Chiang Mai was marred by large but mainly peaceful protests. Naya said he believed that protesters could be brought into the tent if the meeting came to Honolulu. If we incorporate some of those issues into the seminar program, they may even join us. I think we can be better prepared for protesters.