ADB president: Asia-Pacific region should rebalance growth

Special
Report: Global Financial Crisis

BALI, Indonesia, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The Asia and Pacific region must
rebalance growth amid the influence of global financial crisis, said Asian
Development Bank (ADB) President Haruhiko Kuroda on Monday at the opening
session of the 42nd ADB Board of Governors Annual Meeting in Bali, Indonesia.

"By rebalancing export-driven growth with a greater reliance on domestic
demand and consumption, Asia can lead the way in charting a new, globally
beneficial development course," he said.

In that case, Kuroda called on Asian countries to reinforce domestic demand
and revitalize their domestic economies. He said that these countries need to
spend more on health, education, and social security to reduce household needs
for precautionary savings; need strategies to transfer more corporate savings to
households to encourage greater consumer spending; and need the policies that
promote small and medium-sized enterprises and service industries to better
align domestic production with domestic demand.

Kuroda added that rebalancing also requires a stronger and more stable
regional investment climate to channel savings into effective and efficient
investment within the region. Therefore, Asia needs a seamless infrastructure,
which includes physical assets and the enabling policies, regulations, and
institutions.

"ADB's infrastructure investments last year totaled more than 5billion U.S.
dollars in transport and energy alone. But with financing needs estimated at 750
billion dollars a year, much more needs to be done," he said.

"With Strategy 2020, the replenished Asian Development Fund, a substantial
capital increase and our ongoing commitment to institutional effectiveness, ADB
is well-positioned to play an expanded role in the region's future development,"
Kuroda said.

ADB study: infrastructure to remain as bottleneck for development in Asia

BALI, Indonesia, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The backward
infrastructure that suffered enormous pressure from Asia's rapid economic growth
in recent years will continue to be a bottleneck for the region, said a book
released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and ADB Institution on Monday at
the 42nd ADB annual meeting in Bali.

The book, titled Infrastructure for a Seamless Asia,
presents the major issues and challenges in developing regional infrastructure
in Asia through fostering regional cooperation, as well as provides a practical
framework for pan-Asian infrastructure cooperation.

It noted that Asia's trade competitiveness depends to
a large extent on efficient, fast, reliable and seamless infrastructure
connections, but many parts of Asia are isolated economically as well as
geographically.

"Asia has enormous untapped economic potential," said
ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda, adding "Connecting its diverse economies and
peoples through seamless infrastructure will help in achieving an integrated,
poverty-free, prosperous, and peaceful Asia and the world."

According to the book, Asia needs an infrastructure
investment of 8 trillion U.S. dollars in overall national infrastructure and
about 290 billion U.S. dollars in regional infrastructure projects from 2010 to
2020.

China Eximbank, ADB sign co-financing agreement

BALI, Indonesia, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The Export-Import Bank of China (China Eximbank) on Monday inked an agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to jointly prepare at least 3 billion U.S. dollars for projects in developing Asia, especially in terms of infrastructure.

The agreement, signed at the 42nd ADB annual meeting in Bali, will become effective since this June and be utilized over three years.

"Access to sanitation, power and transportation links is still very poor in many parts of Asia. Massive amounts of funds are needed to address that if we are to reduce poverty in the region," said Schaefer-Preuss, vice President of Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development at ADB.

"This agreement with China Eximbank will ensure funds get systematically directed towards those and other urgent projects that will help the region weather the current global downturn," she added.

According to ADB, Asia will need 4.7 trillion U.S. dollars between 2006 and 2015 if it is to meet its developmental potential.

ADB Vice-President: regional co-op to help Asia first recover from crisis

Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

by Xinhua Writers Zhou Erjie, Wang Jingzhong

BALI, Indonesia, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Various regional
cooperative mechanisms, if implemented effectively, could help lift Asia first
out of the global crisis, said Zhao Xiaoyu, Vice-President of Asian Development
Bank (ADB) in an interview with Xinhua Sunday.

"Asian countries themselves have a big enough market
to generate the demand now developed countries fail to," said Zhao, "but this
requires countries to make concerted efforts under regional cooperative
platform."

Within ADB are three main existing mechanisms, namely
Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Program, Central Asian Regional Economic
Cooperation Unit (CAREC) and South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC)
initiative.

"My analysis is that once the pan-Asian cooperation
is put on track and demand is boosted, there will be very positive factors to
tackle the crisis and this is where the ADB is best at," Li said.

But the Vice-President had his concerns. "Many
governments have announced their stimulus packages, but do they have the
capacity to deliver them? And are there so many readily available projects to
spend on?" Zhao asked.

"It's all about implementation and supervision after
the plans are announced," he said.

Besides, Zhao believed trade financing to be another
critical key for the region to recover from the crisis, as the ongoing crisis
has prompted banks to reduce lending to emerging markets and cut credit lines to
both importers and exporters.

"It's not that they don't have the money, it's that
they do not have the confidence to lend it," he said.

Knowing where the rub is, the ADB has been
endeavoring to ensure trade financing through its Trade Finance Facilitation
Program (TFFP), a strong move in curing trade stagnancy of the region,
particularly in times of crisis.

The TFFP, which began operations in 2004, had been
providing finance and guarantees through international and local banks to boost
trade in developing nations.

The ADB has expanded the TFFP from 150 million U.S.
dollars to one billion. It has also increased the maximum maturity of loans
permitted under the TFFP to three years from two years. After the fund increase,
the program is predicted to generate up to 15 billion U.S. dollars in trade
financing by 2013.

"The last point," Zhao said. "is that there should be
no protectionism of any form. Trade barriers are really dangerous constrains to
Asia's recovery."

ADB President: bond market important solution to Asia's problems

Special
Report: Global Financial Crisis

BALI, Indonesia, May 3 (Xinhua)
-- Haruhiko Kuroda, President of Asian Development Bank (ADB), on Sunday called
for the development of Asia's bond market to mitigate the impact of the economic
crisis.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) President
Haruhiko Kuroda (R) speaks at a governor's seminar during the ADB annual
meeting in Bali, Indonesia, May 3, 2009. Haruhiko Kuroda calls for the
development of Asia's bond market to mitigate the impact of the economic
crisis. (Xinhua/Yue Yuewei)
Photo Gallery

"Positive progress in bond market could be a very
important solution to Asia's problems faced by so many countries," Kuroda said
at the ADB annual meeting.

"By developing bond market,
Asia's large savings could be integrated into more productive investment, including
infrastructure investment in Asia, may help reduce imbalance, one of the problems
of the crisis," he said.

Indonesia Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati (L4) speaks at
a governor's seminar during the ADB annual meeting in Bali, Indonesia, May
3, 2009. President of Asian Development Bank (ADB) Haruhiko Kuroda calls for
the development of Asia's bond market to mitigate the impact of the
economic crisis.(Xinhua/Yue Yuewei)
Photo Gallery

In a previous interview with Xinhua, the President
said at the regional level, ADB is working with ASEAN+3 to accelerate the
establishment of a credit guarantee facility in local currency bond markets to
make it easier for private companies to meet their local currency funding needs.

"This facility could provide credit guarantees for
bonds issued by domestic commercial banks to revitalize capital inflows and
allow banks to continue lending in the crisis," he said.

ADB opens "one of the most important" annual meeting of governors

Special
Report: Global Financial Crisis

BALI, Indonesia, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) opened here Monday what is described as "one of the most important" Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors, amid deepening global economic crisis.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono inaugurated the meeting attended by finance ministers from most of ADB's 67 member countries.

"Against the backdrop of a global economic crisis whose depth and severity has surprised us all, this year's Meeting of the Board of Governors is one of the most important in the ADB's history," the Indonesian President said.

"What must come out of this meeting is the clear resolve that the ADB is ready and capable to take on this serious challenge. We must demonstrate that the global financial crisis has made the ADB more, not less, relevant," he added.

The President also took the occasion to boost confidence in overcoming the obstacles. "We are tigers and dragons, resilient and bold. For years if not decades, the Asia Pacific region has been a symbol of hope and inspiration to many around the world," he said.

According to ADB's estimate, Asia-Pacific growth will be 3.4 percent in 2009 and 6 percent in 2010, making it still the world's fastest-growing region.

The 42nd annual meeting came a day after Association of Southeast Asian Nations, China, Japan and South Korea (ASEAN+3) reached the agreement on all main components of a 120-billion-U.S.-dollar regional reserve pool, known as Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization. The finalization of details of the pool is considered a big step forward for the financial cooperation of Asian economies.

China and Japan will each contribute 38.4 billion U.S. dollars to the pool, while South Korea will contribute 19.2 billion dollars. The remainder will come from ASEAN nations.

Four days ago, ADB's Board of Governors agreed to triple its capital resource base, from 55 billion U.S. dollars to 165 billion, which the ADB President, in his address Monday, hailed as "a resounding vote of confidence in this region's ability" to overcome obstacles.

Kenya gets $52 mln from ADB for projects

NAIROBI, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Kenyan government has received 4.2 billion shillings (about 52.7 million U.S. dollars) from the African Development Bank (ADB) to be used for community empowerment and institutional support.

Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta who signed the two agreements late Wednesday said the loan would be used for two projects, including community empowerment and institutional support for technical, industrial, vocational and entrepreneurship training.

Kenyatta said that the first project would be funded to the tune of 1.7 billion shillings while the second would receive 2.5 billion shillings.

"The Kenya government remains committed to good governance and as such we will ensure that these resources are applied as per the agreement that we just signed and indeed for the intended purposes," Kenyatta told journalists.

The minister said that the community empowerment fund would be used to assist communities to enhance their skills to ensure better management of resources available to them, while the technical and entrepreneurship fund would be used to improve the quality of technical training in the country.

The move comes shortly after the bank's board of directors also approved ADB's new country assistance strategy to Kenya, committing to provide a massive 34.8 billion shillings for the next four years to 2012.

Kenyatta said community empowerment and institutional project would help poor communities access critical information at the district level by establishing district information centers.

"This will enhance the skills of communities to ensure better management of resources available at the local level and especially the CDF," Kenyatta said.

ADB Office Representative Domina Muzingo said the bank had recently approved the Kenya Country Strategy under the African Development Fund country cycle for 34 billion shillings towards infrastructure development.

"With the signature of these loans, ADB will be supporting 20 ongoing projects in the Kenyan public sector including for multinational products, for a total investment of 50 billion shillings," Muzingo said. (1 U.S. dollar=79.7 Kenyan shillings)

ADB: Indonesia's economy under threat from climate change

JAKARTA, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's efforts toward sustainable development, poverty eradication and a stronger economy are under serious threat from climate change, according to an ADB report quoted by the Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

The report said climate change would increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, floods and tropical cyclones.

The climate change "is exacerbating water shortages, constraining agricultural production, threatening food security, triggering forest fires, coastal degradation and increasing health risks," it added.

Rainfall would also decline in the next 20 to 30 years in Indonesia, the report claimed.

"Climate change seriously threatens Indonesia's economic development. The worst is yet to come," ADB assistant chief Juzhong Zhung said in the report, adding that combating climate change required urgent action on both adaptation and mitigation as soon as possible.

The report also warned that hundreds of small islands across the country are under serious threat of sinking as climate change contributes to rising sea levels.

Indonesia has 5.8 million square kilometers of sea with coastlines stretching 81,000 kilometers, which serve as home to millions of people.

Data from the Indonesian Ministry of Environment shows that 65 percent of people on Java, Indonesia's most populous island, live in and around coastal areas. The country also has about 17,500 small islands.