The Asian Development Bank (ADB) governing body met here Monday to discuss new strategies to fight poverty and better serve its members in the Asia-Pacific region.
"We at ADB have set the stage for powerful change in the way we serve our developing member countries," Haruhiko Kuroda, president of the Manila-based bank, said during the two-day annual meeting of the ADB's Board of Governors, its highest policy-making body.
Strategy 2020, recently approved by the bank, focuses on economic expansion without overlooking the needs of the poor.
The plan also highlights environmentally sustainable growth and increased regional integration in Asia.
"Our new long-term strategic framework... clearly defines a vision: a vision of an Asia and Pacific free of poverty; a region where the vast majority have joined hands on the path to prosperity," Kuroda said.
Established in 1966, the ADB is an international development finance institution whose mission is to help its developing members in the Asia-Pacific region reduce poverty and improve the quality of life.
Despite an economic upturn in some countries in recent years, the Asia-Pacific region is still home to two-thirds of the world's poor, with 1.5 billion people, equal to three times the population of Europe, living on less than 2 U.S. dollars a day.
The situation runs the risk of worsening amid surging food prices.
"The challenges for Asia's unfinished development agenda are immense," Kuroda said, adding that soaring food prices are hitting the poor very hard.
It is estimated that more than 1 billion people in the Asia-Pacific region have been seriously impacted by the food price surge, as food expenditure accounts for 60 percent of their total expenditure basket.
In an urgent response, the ADB announced here Saturday that it will provide immediate budgetary support to some Asia-Pacific countries hit hardest by the rising prices.
The bank also increased its contribution by 60 percent, to 11.3 billion U.S. dollars, to a development fund that provides zero-interest loans.
The ADB is owned and financed by its 67 members, of which 48 are from the region and the rest from other parts of the world, including Spain, the host of this year's meeting.
Source:Xinhua
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