ADB told to keep cutting poverty as it eyes future

KYOTO – The governors of the Asian Development Bank challenged the agency yesterday to keep its focus on reducing still pervasive poverty even while praising efforts to make strong regional growth more environmentally friendly.

Member countries also voiced worries that growth was causing widening disparities between the rich and poor across Asia, a concern ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda addressed by saying the region’s prosperity should be shared by both rich and poor. “Despite impressive progress, we cannot be complacent,” Kuroda told the opening session of the ADB board of governors at its annual meeting in Kyoto, western Japan.He described Asia as having two faces – the shining Asia of vitality and wealth, and the shadows where desperate poverty persists.”Increased inequality across the region, and within individual countries, threatens social cohesion and puts at risk the process of growth itself,” Kuroda said.The ADB is rexamining itself to keep pace with rapidly expanding economies in the region, notably China and India.But delegates, from both industrialised and developing countries, said the ADB should stay true to its original goal of reducing the number of poor.Kenneth Peel, delegation head for the United States, the ADB’s largest shareholder along with Japan, said the region is still home to about half the world’s most extreme poor, despite strong growth in many economies.”These two parallel realities form the challenge we face in charting a strategic direction for ADB in the years ahead,” he said.A panel of experts has called on the ADB to consider setting up a regional facility to manage part of Asia’s massive foreign reserves, but Peel said the ADB should not stray from its mission and become a miniature version of the International Monetary Fund.Britain’s representative, Charlotte Seymour-Smith, said she welcomed the ADB’s new initiatives on energy efficiency but that “poverty elimination must be the heart of our work”.At the weekend gathering, the ADB announced plans to spend at least US$1 billion on clean energy projects in 2008.Nampa-Reuters”Despite impressive progress, we cannot be complacent,” Kuroda told the opening session of the ADB board of governors at its annual meeting in Kyoto, western Japan.He described Asia as having two faces – the shining Asia of vitality and wealth, and the shadows where desperate poverty persists.”Increased inequality across the region, and within individual countries, threatens social cohesion and puts at risk the process of growth itself,” Kuroda said.The ADB is rexamining itself to keep pace with rapidly expanding economies in the region, notably China and India.But delegates, from both industrialised and developing countries, said the ADB should stay true to its original goal of reducing the number of poor.Kenneth Peel, delegation head for the United States, the ADB’s largest shareholder along with Japan, said the region is still home to about half the world’s most extreme poor, despite strong growth in many economies.”These two parallel realities form the challenge we face in charting a strategic direction for ADB in the years ahead,” he said.A panel of experts has called on the ADB to consider setting up a regional facility to manage part of Asia’s massive foreign reserves, but Peel said the ADB should not stray from its mission and become a miniature version of the International Monetary Fund.Britain’s representative, Charlotte Seymour-Smith, said she welcomed the ADB’s new initiatives on energy efficiency but that “poverty elimination must be the heart of our work”.At the weekend gathering, the ADB announced plans to spend at least US$1 billion on clean energy projects in 2008.Nampa-Reuters