ASEAN to study establishment of anti-poverty bank

ASEAN to study establishment of anti-poverty bank

Agence France-Presse, Bandar Seri Begawan

Southeast Asia is considering the development of an anti-poverty bank providing loans to poor families and financing small business ventures, according to ASEAN documents sighted Sunday.

The latest draft of a joint communique to be issued by foreign ministers after their meeting Monday and Tuesday said they agreed "to task the ASEAN Secretariat to study the feasibility of establishing an ASEAN anti-poverty bank".

It is envisioned to "finance micro-lending for the poor" in the region, according to a Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) draft seen by AFP.

A Southeast Asian senior official who helped word the document said there were proposals not to call it a bank, but design it as a "credit facility for the poor."

In the draft, ASEAN ministers recognized poverty as "one of the challenges in today's economy and society".

The initiative was proposed by the Philippines and Laos during a meeting between Filipino House Speaker Jose de Venecia and Laotian Prime Minister Bounnhang Vorachith who visited Manila in May.

It is aimed at helping reduce poverty by lending to poor urban and rural families.

"The proposed bank is part of an overall strategy to defeat poverty across the region," De Venecia has said.

He said the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank have recognized the absence of an agency in the region to provide funds to small business ventures as well as to poor rural and urban families.

His proposal involved loans ranging from US$500 to $2,000.

ASEAN is comprised of 10 countries, ranging from impoverished Laos and Cambodia to affluent Singapore. The other members are Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.