T
TAJ Tajikistan TAP Taipei,China TASF (See
Technical Assistance Special Fund.)
Tax Liability Status of the Bank
Pursuant to Article 56(1) of ADB’s Charter, ADB’s assets, properties, income, operations, and transactions are exempt from all taxation and custom duties. ADB is also exempt from any obligation for the payment, withholding, or collection of any tax or duty. Status of Obligations and Securities of ADB
Under ADB’s Charter, no member may impose any tax on ADB’s obligations if such tax discriminates against such obligations solely because they are issued by ADB, or if the sole jurisdictional basis for such tax is the place or currency in which the obligations are issued, made payable or paid, or the location of any office or place of business maintained by ADB. ADB is not under any obligation to withhold or pay any tax on its borrowings. Technical Assistance Technical assistance plays an important role in ADB’s operations and is an integral part of its country programming exercises. Technical assistance helps developing member countries (DMCs) identify, design, implement, and operate development projects, and strengthens their ability to formulate development strategies, policies, programs, and plans. It also promotes technology transfer and enhances regional cooperation.
Financing
ADB’s technical assistance is financed through grants or loans, or a combination of both. Funding for grants comes from voluntary contributions to ADB’s Technical Assistance Special Fund (TASF) by both developed and developing members, allocations to the TASF from the Asian Development Fund, investment from TASF, income from ordinary capital resources (OCR) operations, allocations from the Japan Special Fund, and grants from multilateral and bilateral sources (under cofinancing and exclusive financing arrangements).
Types
ADB’s technical assistance operations fall broadly under the following categories.
Project Preparation: Assists the recipient country in preparing a project to make it ready for investment financing. Advisory and Operational: Assists an executing agency in implementing an ADB-financed project. This type of technical assistance usually engages consultant services with expertise in operating, managing, and implementing the project; training local personnel; and improving financial management of the project entity. It is also used to help establish or strengthen an institution, carry out studies on sectoral policies and strategies, or formulate national development plans. This type of technical assistance may not be directly related to an ADB-financed project. Regional: Prepares regional studies and conducts—by ADB or in cooperation with other organizations—conferences, seminars, workshops, and training courses for participants from several DMCs, thereby promoting the role of ADB as a development resource center.
(See also Asian Currency Crisis Support Facility; Channel Financing; Consultants; Country Economic Review; Lending; Local Currency Financing; Poverty Reduction; Program Lending; Project Cycle; Project Identification; Regional Assistance Plan; Sector Development Program; and Sectors and Subsectors) Technical Assistance Special Fund The Technical Assistance Special Fund is an important source of grant financing for ADB’s technical assistance operations. It is funded by voluntary contributions of members, funds earmarked from Asian Development Fund resources, and income from ordinary capital resources operations.
TFIPQ Task Force on Improving Project Quality Thematic Priorities In addressing thematic priorities, ADB works to capture key elements of human and social perspectives of development. Important thematic priorities encountered in ADB's operations are economic growth, human development, gender and development, good governance, environmental protection, private sector development, and regional cooperation. ADB assigns importance to thematic priorities in all its processes, from the formulation of development strategies, to the design of specific interventions, to the monitoring and evaluation of interventions in progress and completed.
(See also Country Operational Strategy;
Governance and Capacity Building;
Long-Term Strategic Framework;
Social Dimensions of Development;
Strategic Agenda; and Strategic Planning) Three-Year Rolling Work Program and Budget Framework This document, jointly prepared by the Strategy and Policy Department and the Budget, Personnel and Management Systems Department, presents the key components of both the operational work programs and the nonoperational work programs (including financial and administrative support programs) for a three-year period. It also outlines a three-year budget scenario within which the overall work program is assumed to be carried out. Greater details are provided for the budget estimate for the first of the three-year period (the year to follow). This document is informally discussed by the Board of Directors and also serves as a preview of the budget proposal for the following year, which is formally presented to the Board at the end of the current year.
(See also Corporate Planning; and Country Assistance Plan) TKM Turkmenistan TON Tonga Training and Institutional Development ADB considers human development as an essential part of poverty reduction and socioeconomic progress in its developing member countries as well as an important contribution to improving governance. This is reflected in its efforts to
provide basic education for all, train and develop skilled personnel to be responsive to changing labor and economic conditions and to the demands of science and technology, and build up the institutional capacity of beneficiary agencies.
In addition to direct assistance to the education sector, ADB supports built-in education, training, and institutional development components in loan and technical assistance projects in almost all sectors, and has created other operational instruments, such as scholarship programs not related to projects. ADB also supports training through the Japan Scholarship Fund, administered by ADB and supported by the Government of Japan.
(See also Budget, Personnel and Management Systems Department) Transitional Economies Among the members of ADB, the transitional economies of Asia are Azerbaijan, Cambodia, People’s Republic of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mongolia, Myanmar, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Viet Nam.
In the transition from centrally planned to market economies, these countries go through the process of shedding the entire institutional structure that supported a centralized allocation of resources and eradicated private property.
The transition from a centrally planned to a market-based economy is a complex process and stretches over a considerable time. ADB’s efforts are focused on assisting these transitional economies to design strategies based on their individual domestic and external circumstances. Another focus of ADB’s assistance has been to avert a deterioration in the human development index for these transitional economies. Transport and Communications Sector The operations of the transport and communications sector reflect ADB’s overall objective of poverty reduction by orienting transport improvements to poorer persons. They also assist in enhancing governance through institutional and policy changes, and indirect poverty reduction through stimulating economic growth. ADB continues to assist the development of land, water, and air-based transport networks. In some countries, ADB operations focus on constructing new transport infrastructure. In other countries, particularly given the declines in transport demand after the Asian and Russian financial crises, ADB operations concentrate on rehabilitating and maintaining the existing infrastructure assets.
Improvements to the national transport infrastructure networks to increase transport efficiency and decrease transport costs continues, combined with direct charges on users, to draw in private and commercial sources of financing and earmarked revenues. In the railway sector in selected countries, major changes are being implemented to improve the effectiveness of operations, recognize the provision of services, and ensure financial sustainability through transparent mechanisms for government contributions for noncommercial activities.
Apart from continued assistance with commercialization, design, and safety in relation to transport infrastructure and services, further assistance is being provided for developing dedicated sources of funding, monitoring the social and poverty impact of transport sector operations, and mitigating vehicle emissions and monitoring air quality, especially in urban locations. Loans and technical assistance are also being provided for transport infrastructure that stimulates and facilitates cross-border trade on a subregional basis.
(See also Sectors and Subsectors) Treasurer’s Department (See
Departments and Offices.)
Triple-A Rating ADB bonds are rated Triple-A by Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s, Japan Credit Rating Agency, and Fitch. The Triple-A rating reflects ADB’s conservative lending guidelines, strong membership support, preferred creditor status with its borrowers, outstanding financial performance, and very conservative financial policies.
(See also Creditworthiness) TUV Tuvalu
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