The Asian Development Bank (ADB) closed its annual meeting of Board of Governors on Tuesday, after pledges of cooperation and showcases of confidence among the lender's 67 members.
The participating governors agreed to build on regional cooperation "through future policy dialogue and actions for establishing economic structures that are more resilient to fluctuations in external demand," as ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda summed up in his closing statement of the meeting.
"In this context, prioritized investment through public-private partnerships in a 'regional seamless economic structure', supported by modernized capital markets, would bring great benefits to developing nations of the region," Kuroda said in the statement.
Amid the crisis, ADB is probably closer to its motto -- fighting poverty in Asia and the Pacific -- than in many other moments of its history, especially after the governors admitted "a serious threat" is posed on the region's poorest and most vulnerable citizens, and undermines the region's progress towards achievement of all Millennium Development Goals.
During the meeting, there also has been much talk on whether Asia's economy would emerge from the crisis earlier than the rest of the world and when such recovery would take place. Many economists and officials, including ADB's Vice-President Zhao Xiaoyu and its Acting Chief Economist Jong-Wha Lee, expressed optimism to the first question, as long as Asia is doing a good job on implementing intra-regional cooperation and boosting domestic demand.
As for when, ADB has its dateline. "I'm cautiously optimistic that Asia will recover by the end of next year," the ADB President said at Tuesday's press conference.
The Chinese economy may have already bottomed out, and been on the recovery phase, he said, adding that South Korean economy had also showed signs of recovery.
By the end of the meeting, however, some NGOs also expressed disappointment as the meeting is short of any action plan amid the worst global economic crisis in decades.
"The 42nd annual meeting of the Bank is over. It began with calls that business-as-usual is no longer acceptable. Ironically, the proposals remain just that -- recycled approaches that did not work in the past and which can only exacerbate the region's problems at present," said Red Constantino, Executive Director of the NGO Forum on ADB.
To some, the core of ADB's annual meeting -- the two-day meet of ADB's Board of Governors from Monday -- was more of an anti-climax.
On Sunday, finance ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, China, Japan and South Korea (ASEAN+3) reached the agreement on all main components of a regional reserve pool, known as Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM), and pledged to implement it before the end of this year.
The finalization of the initiative was considered a big move forward in Asia's financial cooperation.
Days before, ADB announced its fifth major capital increase -- the largest one in its 43-year history -- of tripling the base to a staggering 165 billion U.S. dollars.
"This substantial increase is a resounding vote of confidence from our shareholders for what we can achieve as a premier development partner in the region," said Kuroda.
(Xinhua News Agency May 6, 2009)
