Feature
Asian Development Bank Energy Strategy Consultation, Through July 27
The Asian Development Bank invites comments on its new clean energy sector strategy. The draft strategy is available on ADB's website. Feel free to share the strategy with all interested organizations and individuals so that they can review the consultation draft and fill in the feedback form. The deadline for submission is July 27. We hope you will participate in this important exercise.
Development of ADB's Energy Strategy.
ADB Working on Consultation Draft of Safeguards Update
ADB is working on proposals to enhance environmental and social safeguards in undertaking projects in Asia and the Pacific. For this purpose, ADB is updating all three of its safeguard policies – on Involuntary Resettlement (1995), Indigenous Peoples (1998), and Environment (2002) – to enhance their effectiveness and positive development impact, and ensure that they remain relevant to new lending products and the changing needs of its clients.
"The planned update will articulate more clearly ADB's environment and social safeguard requirements and focus more on policy delivery during implementation," says Nessim Ahmad, Director of ADB's Environment and Social Safeguard Division. The first consultation draft for the safeguard policy update is expected to be posted on the web in mid-2007. Structured consultation workshops with stakeholders will follow across Asia and Pacific in the third quarter of the year. "We look forward to continued strong engagement by civil society in the policy update process," adds Mr. Ahmad, "and we also want to hear from other stakeholders such as those in government and the private sector."
ADB's Statistical Database System (SDBS) Now Online
ADB's statistical database system is now online. SDBS is a searchable database of basic social, economic, and financial indicators relating to ADB's developing member countries.
ADB Annual Meeting Held in Kyoto, Japan
The ADB 40th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors was held in Kyoto, Japan, from May 4-7. ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda hailed the event as providing valuable insights into how ADB can evolve with a changing Asia. Read his Annual Meetings Address.
Read the statement by Canada's Head of Delegation The Honorable Hao Sing Tse.
Read the statement by U.S. Head of Delegation The Honorable Kenneth Peel.
Eminent Persons See New Paradigm for ADB in Transformed Asia
A report by an independent panel of eminent persons projects that by 2020, Asia will be dramatically transformed into a region that has largely conquered extreme poverty.
The panel, chaired by Mr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, was established to advise the President of the Asian Development Bank on trends and challenges facing the Asia Pacific region, and to inform the Bank's long-term direction. Their report was delivered on the occasion of the 2007 ADB Annual Meeting.
Read the Report of the Eminent Persons Group to the President of the Asian Development Bank .
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Inside ADB
Georgia becomes 67th member of ADB
Georgia has become the 67th member of ADB effective 2 February, 2007. Georgia has subscribed to 12,081 shares of the capital stock. ADB's authorized capital stock is 3,546,311 shares, equivalent to $53.06 billion (at 2 February, with US$/SDR rate of 1.496140).
ADB Names Bindu Lohani as Vice-President.
The Board of Directors of ADB, acting on the recommendation of ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda, has approved the appointment of Bindu N. Lohani as Vice-President for a three-year term, upon assumption of office. Learn more about Mr. Lohani.
ADB makes early damage assessments post tsunami in Solomon Islands
Following the earthquake and tsunami in the Solomon Islands last week, an ADB team led by ADB Pacific Liaison and Coordination Office Senior Project Implementation Officer Rishi Adhar (pictured) began working in the disaster areas, conducting an initial assessment of infrastructure damage. Since then, the Solomon Islands Government and ADB have agreed on an Emergency Assistance Project to be implemented from 2007-2009. ADB has committed to assisting the Government by providing technical support in overall coordination, and drafting of the Recovery Action Plan in coordination with other development partners. Learn more.
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ADB in the News
The Government of Canada has agreed to make an additional contribution of Can$1.75 million to the Gender and Development Cooperation Fund of the ADB to support continuing efforts to provide better opportunities for women in the Asia Pacific region. Read the full story.
ADB is lending US$1 billion - its biggest ever regular loan - to help reform rural finance in India. The project will promote inclusive growth and help improve the quality of life of India's rural poor through the provision of affordable financial services. The program will address the problems faced by farmers by undertaking a comprehensive reform of the cooperative credit structure. Read the full story.
Mekong farmers, especially smallholders, and the rural poor of six nations stand to benefit from a new ADB program that aims to foster cross-border trade and investment in agriculture, contribute to food security and poverty reduction, and promote environmental protection and sustainable use of natural resources. Read the full story.
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ADB Projects in Profile
Plan Unveiled to Secure Future of Thailand's Tsunami-Hit Andaman Region. An ambitious masterplan was formally rolled out in April that will provide the tsunami-hit areas of Thailand's Andaman Coast with a sustainable medium development strategy to strengthen more short-term recovery efforts. The plan, developed with support from an ADB technical assistance grant of US$1.7 million, provides a framework for the various recovery programs taking place in the three provinces affected by the Asian tsunami - Krabi, Phang Nga, and Phuket.
Learn more about the project.
ADB and UNESCO Radio Dramas Help in HIV/AIDS Fight in the Mekong Region.
In small ethnic communities scattered around the uplands of the Mekong region, groups of women come together during afternoons to listen to a rare form of entertainment - radio dramas that teach them about HIV/AIDS, trafficking and drug use. These minority women, mostly from the upland ethnic groups of the Thai-Myanmar-Laos-China border regions, are vulnerable to exploitation in the region's sex industry. Read more about this regional technical assistance project funded by the Poverty Reduction Cooperation Fund at http://www.adb.org/media/Articles/2007/11595-asian-hiv-aids-preventions/.
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ADB Feature Publications
Asian Development Bank Annual Report 2006
The Asian Development Bank's Annual Report 2006 presents the year's activities, focusing on results and how ADB is improving lives in the Asia and Pacific region. Read the Annual Report, delivered on occasion of the 2007 Annual Meeting.
The Asian Development Outlook 2007 Forecasts Strong Growth for Asia in 2007
Developing Asian economies will post robust growth in 2007, underpinned by strengthening domestic demand and a broadly favorable outlook for the international economy, says ADB's flagship annual publication, "Asian Development Outlook 2007: Growth Amid Change." Launched in Tokyo on March 28, the ADO forecasts that developing Asian economies will expand at 7.6% in 2007 and 7.7% in 2008.
Dr. Ifzal Ali, ADB Chief Economist, led the North American briefings in Canada and the United States, delivering presentations in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Washington DC, and New York City.
Read his interview with the Asia Society (New York City)*.
Download the ADO 2007.
Independent Evaluation at the Asian Development Bank
Operations evaluation has changed from the beginnings of evaluation activities in ADB in 1978. Initially, the focus of evaluation was on assessing whether implementation was consistent with the intentions reflected in the appraisal of a project, and the extent to which the project achieved the expected economic and social benefits. Operations evaluation now shapes decision making throughout the project cycle and in ADB as a whole. Independent Evaluation at the Asian Development Bank, published in 2007, offers more than an account of the early steps of operations evaluation. It describes recent accomplishments and looks to the future. Read the full report.
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ADB Events
ADB Presents at International Development Days, Frederickton, New Brunswick, Canada, May 22-24
ADB participated in the 2007 International Development Days* from May 22-24, delivering presentations on ADB business opportunities for consultant services and procurement of goods. IDD is Canada's premier event for companies interested in developing country markets.
ADB Business Opportunities Seminars held in Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, USA, May 22-25
From May 22-25, ADB partnered with the Chicago World Trade Center*, the Wisconsin Department of Commerce*, and the Minnesota Trade Office*, for a series of business opportunities seminars focusing on the Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and World Bank Group.
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Upcoming ADB Events
The International Economic Forum of the Americas/Conference de Montreal, June 18-21
ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda will deliver a keynote address at the 2007 Conference de Montreal*, to be held June 18-21, 2007, in Montreal, Canada. ADB will also participate in a Doing Business with ADB seminar at the Conference de Montreal on June 20.
The Conference de Montreal has as its principal mission the promotion of wide-ranging and completely open discussion of the major international economic issues. It also aims at facilitating the creation of contacts between representatives of businesses, governments and international agencies as well as members of the academic world and civic society, thereby encouraging international exchanges.
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ADB Opportunities
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