ADB to adopt more selective lending strategy

ADB to adopt more selective lending strategy

MANILA (AFP): The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Wednesday
it is to adopt a more selective lending approach in a major
strategic shift in its long-term goal of reducing the region's
massive poverty.

"The context in which ADB will operate over the next decade or
so will be dramatically different from that of the 1990s," the
ADB said in a statement issued at the launch of the bank's new
long-term strategic framework.

Shoji Nishimoto, director of the ADB's strategy and policy
department, said the bank "will continue to play a large role in
helping its developing member countries" reach overall goals of
reducing poverty by half between 1990 and 2015.

But he said that to broaden and deepen the impact of core
poverty reduction interventions, the ADB would promote the role
of the private sector in mobilizing resources to address the
region's development needs.

"The development challenges of the region are far beyond the
capacities of any one institution," Nishimoto said in the
statement.

ADB's new agenda "will enable us to be selective in our
investments and to take a long-term approach," he said.

It would "focus our resources on the things we do best, and to
be more efficient in our operations."

Nishimoto said ADB operations would focus on achieving
sustainable economic growth, "inclusive" social development that
targets women and disadvantaged groups, and "governance for
effective policies and institutions."

The bank would provide support for legal and judicial reform
and public accountability, he added.

Last year, ADB's total lending was US$5.8 billion, including
concessional loans of $1.6 billion. Nearly all loans were to
governments.

Clay Wescott, ADB's senior public administration specialist,
told AFP last month that under the new framework, the bank will
put pressure on governments to improve their performance by tying
soft loans to their effectiveness and reform efforts.

The bank's lending system for these funds is now based solely
on population and per capita gross domestic product, with special
consideration given to small island states and landlocked
nations.

Nishimoto said Wednesday that the ADB would also support
regional cooperation and integration, as well as put
environmental considerations in the forefront of development
planning so as to reverse the "enormous and costly environmental
degradation and damage that have already occurred."

The bank said it first reoriented its operational priorities
in the early 1980s.

The 1990s ushered in another change, when the bank began to
put more emphasis on social infrastructure, projects targeted at
the poor, and projects to improve the environment.