The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will focus its work on inclusive and sustainable growth of the Asia and Pacific region, the Manila-based multilateral institution said in a press release on Tuesday.
To fight poverty in the region of over 600 million people surviving on one U.S. dollar a day, the ADB has launched Strategy 2020, a new long-term strategy to fight poverty in Asia and the Pacific.
The strategy will refocus ADB operations on three development agenda, including inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration.
"Strategy 2020 reshapes, redirects, and repositions the ADB for a more innovative and effective development role in our rapidly changing region and within the international aid architecture," President Haruhiko Kuroda said in the press release.
Growth is inclusive when it allows all members of a society to participate in and contribute to the growth process on an equal basis regardless of their individual circumstances, according to the ADB.
Strategy 2020 sets ADB's new strategic course, emphasizing that poverty reduction can only be sustained if more people are economically productive, economic growth takes place in a well-managed natural environment, and neighboring economies work within larger and freer markets to achieve shared interests through cooperation.
By 2012, 80 percent of ADB's lending will be in five core operational areas identified as ADB's comparative strengths. They are infrastructure, environment, regional cooperation and integration, finance sector development, and education.
By 2020, about 50 percent of operations will be in private sector development and private sector operations, and 30 percent in regional cooperation and integration, the ADB said. The lender said that it will continue to operate on a more selective basis in health, agriculture, and disaster and emergency assistance.
Strategy 2020 identifies drivers of change that will be stressed in its operations, that is, developing the private sector, encouraging good governance, supporting gender equity, and helping developing countries gain knowledge.
ADB's stakeholders provided extensive input into Strategy 2020,which will serve as ADB's main strategic document from 2008 to 2020, replacing the long-term strategic framework for 2001-2015 released in 2000, the lender added.
Source:Xinhua
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