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Annual Report 2002

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Country Reports

A key objective of the 2002 reorganization of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) was to strengthen its country¹ focus, in part by unifying accountability for operations in a particular developing member country (DMC) within one department. ADB’s policy on resident missions in its DMCs, adopted in 2000 and reviewed in 2002 (see http://www.adb.org/Documents/Policies/Resident_Mission/), reinforced this objective, as did ADB’s key planning tool for DMCs—the country strategy and program (CSP) (see Glossary and http://www.adb.org/Documents/CSPs/).

The reorganization took the process further. As of 1 January 2003, each regional department—East and Central Asia Department, Mekong Department, Pacific Department, South Asia Department, and Southeast Asia Department—covers a group of geographically contiguous countries with similarities in culture, economic systems, and social organization. Other considerations for the groupings were operational convenience, and scope for subregional cooperation and linkages with subregional groups. Each department aims to promote integrated development suited to the needs of the individual DMC. Subregional cooperation is supported wherever appropriate. For more on regional departments, see http://www.adb.org/ECRD/ for the East and Central Asia Department, http://www.adb.org/MKRD/ for the Mekong Department, http://www.adb.org/PARD/ for the Pacific Department, http://www.adb.org/SARD/ for the South Asia Department, and http://www.adb.org/SERD/ for the Southeast Asia Department.

The regional departments replaced the programs and projects departments, which had reported to the vice-presidents East and West. With the reorganization, the roles of the operational vice-presidents were strengthened: Vice-President (Operations 1) oversees the South Asia and Mekong departments; and Vice-President (Operations 2) the operations of the East and Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and Pacific departments. The duties of Vice-President (Finance and Administration) were relatively unchanged by the reorganization.

The regional departments ensure implementation of ADB’s strategic agenda. Their tasks cover a range of ADB activities, including developing the CSP and its regular updates, and designing and implementing programs and projects.

Each country has a team, which includes staff members from headquarters and, if applicable, the resident mission, to maintain a country perspective in all operations. In this chapter, DMCs with ongoing operations² are presented alphabetically by regional department (see Box below). For each of the five departments, a brief regional overview is followed by a discussion of the individual DMC within that region, including economic performance and highlights of ADB’s activities in the DMC in 2002.

A more complete picture of the economic performance of each DMC appears in the Asian Development Outlook 2003 at http://www.adb.org/publications and in tables 37–43 in the Statistical Annex. For more information on ADB operations, see individual CSPs, available in print and at http://www.adb.org/Documents/CSPs.

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