Catalog

The People's Republic of China - PRC - has recorded consistently high economic growth during the past 2 decades that has helped to dramatically reduce poverty. As a dependable partner in the PRC's development, the Asian Development Bank has contributed to these accomplishments.

The PRC and ADB are celebrating their successful partnership at ADB's 35th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors in Shanghai, 10-12 May 2002. In recognition of this important relationship, we have produced this special issue of ADB Review.

As of end-2001, ADB had lent the PRC a total of $11.3 billion to help finance 91 loans and provided $196 million in technical assistance to many sectors, including transportation, energy, industry, agriculture, water resources, environmental protection, finance, social security, enterprise reform, and legal/regulatory reform.

In the early years, ADB supported the PRC's development priorities by providing much of its assistance to financial institutions and state-owned enterprises, mainly in the eastern coastal provinces.

Today, ADB focuses on contributing to poverty reduction by improving infrastructure in the poor central and western provinces and improving the environment and natural resource management.

ADB is also playing a leading role in supporting regional cooperation between the PRC and its neighboring countries, promoting good governance, and helping build an enabling environment for the private sector.

This year, ADB is expected to lend about $1.25 billion to the PRC in a program that focuses on:

• creating opportunities to reduce poverty by improving roads in the Western Region

• reducing the pollution of the PRC's rivers by financing wastewater treatment plants

• improving flood management in the Songhua River Basin

• promoting the efficient use of agricultural wastes in poor areas

This issue of ADB Review highlights some of ADB's successful projects in the PRC.

Several projects have helped build the infrastructure necessary to facilitate economic growth. One good example is the phenomenal growth of Shanghai's Pudong New Area - where the Annual Meeting is being held - into a modern financial, commercial, and industrial hub.

Fifteen years ago Pudong was a rural area. None of the modern skyscrapers that we see today existed. The ADB-assisted Nanpu and Yangpu bridges, completed in the early 1990s, provided the transport infrastructure across the Huang Pu River that was essential for Pudong's development.

In the west, the Chuxiong-Dali expressway in Yunnan Province has brought widespread benefits to the province's poor, as well as to the local business community.

In western Guizhou, a new railway line is bringing better nutrition as well as employment opportunities to the poor living in isolated rural communities.

In Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, a pioneering build-operate-transfer project brought foreign investment and increased the supply of clean drinking water.

In the mountain city of Chongqing, ADB is helping wage the battle against vehicular emissions.

The PRC's rapid economic development, however, has come at considerable environmental cost. A top government priority is to clean up urban pollution.

In the special issue of ADB Review are stories showing how ADB has helped protect Beijing's drinking water, clean up Shanghai's Suzhou Creek, improve the air quality of Xi'an and Tongchuan in Shaanxi Province, and combat desertification in Gansu Province.

These articles illustrate the strong and growing partnership between the PRC and ADB. We hope you enjoy them.

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