Controversy over Asian Development Bank

The report by a team of eminent persons who assessed the role of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) met with strong criticism at the Bank’s annual meeting in Kyoto in May, according to the media. In April, an expert group headed by Supachai Panitchpakdi, the secretary-general of UNCTAD, had recommended that the ADB redefine its mandate, asserting that poverty reduction was no longer the most important task in Asia. Rather, the challenge was now to overcome typical problems of emerging markets (see D+C/E+Z 5/2007, p. 219). According to the Financial Times, several ADB member countries voiced their dissent. Anwar ul-Haq Ahadi, Afghanistan’s finance minister, said the fight against poverty remained an urgent and difficult task; the bank should concentrate on the poorest and most fragile countries, where it could achieve most. Indonesia’s Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the ADB should continue to focus on agriculture, health and education. Several ADB governors expressed their concern that the Bank could take on tasks already dealt with by other institutions, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and private-sector companies. According to Haruhiko Kuroda, the ADB’s president, the debate proved that the ADB must evolve in order to respond to new challenges while continuing to focus on poverty reduction. (ell)