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Annual Report 2002

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2002 in Review: Board of Directors' Report

Developing Asia grew faster than expected in 2002, despite global security and economic uncertainties and increasing concern about the possibility of deflation. The Asia and Pacific region’s developing member countries (DMCs) posted an overall economic growth of 5.7%. While development progress for most countries followed a fairly even path, some witnessed special challenges in 2002. Timor-Leste (formerly East Timor)— the world’s newest country—took its first steps. Afghanistan set about turning mounds of brick and roofless buildings into schools and hospitals. Sri Lanka began a peace process to end decades of civil unrest. Nepal saw strife worsen. Terrorism struck Indonesia, and the continuing threat of terrorist strikes and talk of war gave little cause for optimism.

Yet, it was also a year when the international community endorsed a shared vision for protecting the region’s most vulnerable.

For the Asian Development Bank (ADB), 2002 was a year when existing partnerships were strengthened and new ones forged, when the value of partnerships at every level—between developed and developing countries, between multilateral development institutions and developing countries, between regions, between public and private sectors—was stressed. ADB joined the international community in endorsing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). ADB participated in the United Nations International Conference on Financing for Development, at which a consensus was reached to build a new global alliance for financing development and an agreement was signed to better measure, monitor, and manage development results. Recognizing the need for a broad coalition of development partners to free the Asia and Pacific region of poverty, ADB sought to work more closely with other bilateral and multilateral development agencies. Agreements between ADB and the International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Bank, World Trade Organization (WTO), and others reflect this determination.

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