Publications

In 2012, the Board of Directors continued to oversee the implementation of Strategy 2020—ADB’s paramount strategic framework to guide all its operations to 2020—as it deliberated and took decisions to improve ADB’s responsiveness, development effectiveness, and accountability. ADB’s operations in 2012 totaled $21.57 billion. Of this amount, $13.30 billion was financed by ADB and Special Funds, and $8.27 billion by cofinancing partners. Meanwhile, ADB’s cofinancing operations continue to extend the impact of our development assistance.

The Asian Development Outlook (ADO) is a series of annual economic reports that provide a comprehensive analysis of macroeconomic and development issues on ADB’s developing member countries (DMCs), plus their prospects for the next 2 years. This edition says that, despite regional economic growth forecasts, developing Asia needs to achieve energy security by actively containing its rising energy demand, aggressively exploring new supply sources and technology, and progressively integrating regional energy markets and infrastructure. The region already consumes roughly a third of global energy while remaining home to two-thirds of the world’s poor, with many of its megacities mired in polluted air and water. Securing adequate energy supplies must be achieved while preserving the environment and extending the benefits of electricity to millions who still live without it.

Rising inequality is the cover theme of the new issue of ADB's topical magazine on human and economic development in Asia and the Pacific. The new-look magazine features an in-depth interview on inequality with the Government of India's Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and contributions from some of the region's leading development thinkers and writers. Available in print and online at development.asia.

Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific is the flagship annual statistical data book of ADB. It presents economic, financial, social, environmental, and Millennium Development Goals (MDG) indicators for the 48 regional members of ADB. Part I of this 2012 edition is a special chapter on green urbanization in Asia. It offers a cautiously optimistic environmental prospect for Asia as the region urbanizes at unprecedented rates, and provides suggestions for government intervention to ensure green urbanization. Parts II and III are comprised of brief, non-technical analyses and statistical tables on the MDGs and seven other development themes. The second edition of Framework of Inclusive Growth Indicators (FIGI), a special supplement to Key Indicators, is also included.

The Donor Report 2012 explains a wide range of financing options available to partners seeking to expand their commitment to developing the Asia and Pacific region. Cofinancing highlights and statistics show ADB’s overall cofinancing performance as well as country and sector concentration.

This monograph-prepared for the 2013 Asian Development Bank Annual Meeting-aims to stimulate debate and further research on the role regional integration can play in sustaining growth, reducing poverty, and promoting welfare and future prosperity for Asia and the Pacific.

This catalog lists publications - such as books, reports, manuals, and other materials available from ADB. ADB publications can be ordered at ADB headquarters, from commercial distributors and booksellers, and copublishers. Forms for ordering publications, review copies, and copyright permissions are also provided.

The development of a strong and dynamic private sector is essential to long-term economic growth and a necessary condition for sustainable poverty reduction. This publication about ADB's nonsovereign operations (i.e. private entities, state-owned enterprises, and municipalities) explains ADB's approach to catalyzing and strengthening private sector investments in Asia and the Pacific. It discusses the role of the Private Sector Operations Department in meeting ADB’s objective of working closely with private sponsors, investors, and financiers in promoting investment opportunities that contribute to reducing poverty throughout the region.

Asia Bond Monitor reviews recent developments in East Asian local currency (LCY) bond markets along with outlook, risks, and policy challenges. It covers the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus the People's Republic of China (PRC); Hong Kong, China; and the Republic of Korea. This edition features a special section, Managing Capital Flows in LCY Bond Markets, which features highlights on total bonds growth, the most rapidly growing markets in the region, and government bonds.

The Asian Development Outlook (ADO) is a series of annual economic reports that provide a comprehensive analysis of macroeconomic and development issues on ADB’s developing member countries (DMCs), plus their prospects for the next 2 years. ADO 2012 includes a special feature on widening inequality, and takes a closer look at how swelling income disparities threaten to undermine the pace of progress despite developing Asia’s great success in raising living standards and reducing poverty.

The Asian Economic Integration Monitor is a semiannual review of Asia's regional economic cooperation and integration, covering ADB's 48 regional members. This issue includes a special chapter—Multilateralizing Asian Regionalism: Approaches to Unraveling the Asian Noodle Bowl—with the following highlights: the proliferation of free trade agreements (FTAs) and how the global multilateral impasse has helped create an Asian noodle bowl; two key proposals that aim to disentangle the Asian noodle bowl; the ASEAN-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership that could pave the way for consolidating ASEAN FTAs under a single regional agreement; multilateralization that can proceed from a consolidated regional FTA, or economies that can seek multilateralization independently; and how—despite consolidation and multilateralization not being mutually exclusive (consolidation is a means, multilateralization an end)—history shows that unilateral actions (of which multilateralization is a special case) are not only feasible but account for most trade liberalization to date.

The cluster-based city economic development (CCED) approach provides a strategic framework and analytical tools to support inclusive and sustainable development in competitive urban economies. It helps urban managers and other city stakeholders identify action plans and determine priority investment areas. This book explores ways of fostering the development of industry clusters to increase the competitiveness of Asian cities through CCED. It draws upon extensive experience of industry cluster development in Asia, specifically in three South Asian countries (Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka) where CCED has been tested.

In Asia and the Pacific, much of the region’s success in reducing poverty can be attributed to robust economic growth stimulated by the private sector. Development Effectiveness Report 2011: Private Sector Operations is the third annual report on ADB’s private sector operations (PSOs). It reviews how the Private Sector Operations Department has contributed to promoting ADB’s development effectiveness agenda and features the direct and indirect impact of private sector assistance. It considers the value added of this assistance, highlighting performance trends and identifying actions required to improve results.

Asia's cities are engines of economic growth and have lifted millions of people out of poverty. However, the impact of rapid growth on the environment threatens further and continued development. Green Cities directs the green agenda toward compact, multifunctional, and efficient urban areas by identifying investments to make cities more “green.” The book also discusses how to finance environmental infrastructure initiatives.

This paper argues that developing Asia would benefit from liberalizing services trade as it has benefited from liberalizing goods trade. It discusses how reducing barriers to services trade enables developing Asia to take advantage of the standard gains to trade—importing better and less expensive intermediate commodities from countries that have comparative advantage in these activities. Access to less expensive business service inputs would undoubtedly increase productivity in the manufacturing sector and the service sector, and facilitate growth in developing Asia.

This paper examines the welfare impacts of preferential liberalization using more realistic utilization rates, versus non-preferential approaches- multilateralization of preferences and global liberalization, employing a multi-country model.

Trade, investment, and financial relationships between developing regions are deepening. There is no better example than the relationship between Asia and the Pacific on one hand, and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) on the other. To maximize potential for interregional cooperation, ADB and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have undertaken a special joint study examining how to bolster the relationship between Asia and Latin America, and enhance the catalytic role of their respective regional development banks. Shaping the Future of the Asia–Latin America and the Caribbean Relationship analyzes the economic ties between these two rapidly growing regions, how to remove existing trade and investment barriers, and how to support greater South–South cooperation.

This publication brings together the conference proceedings from the Regional Workshop on Social Assistance and Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs), held on 23–24 July 2009 at ADB. The workshop was organized as part of ADB’s program on distilling social assistance experience and advancing the operational agenda for social protection in Asia and the Pacific. Participants came from ADB, its developing member countries, partner development agencies, research institutes, and civil society organizations to share their views and experience on social assistance and its modalities, especially CCTs. Among the participants were experts on CCT with extensive experience in its implementation in Latin America, where it has been most actively used.

Inclusive education addresses diverse learning needs and reaches out to excluded groups by providing not only physical access to learning institutions but academic and instructional access to learning concepts as well. The report serves two main purposes: as a strategic and operational guide for ADB and its education sector staff in strengthening inclusive education projects in developing member countries; and as an informative resource for education ministries, institutions, and other stakeholders of education in the region.

ADB's Trade Finance Program (TFP) fills market gaps for trade finance by providing guarantees and loans to banks to support trade. Backed by its AAA credit rating, ADB’s TFP works with over 200 partner banks to provide companies with the financial support they need to engage in import and export activities in Asia’s most challenging markets. With dedicated trade finance specialists and a response time of 24 hours, the TFP has established itself as a key player in the international trade community, providing fast, reliable, and responsive trade finance support to fill market gaps. A substantial portion of TFP’s portfolio supports small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and many transactions occur either intra-regionally or between ADB’s developing member countries. The program supports a wide range of transactions, from commodities and capital goods to medical supplies and consumer goods. The TFP continues to grow, supporting billions of dollars of trade throughout the region, which in turn helps create sustainable jobs and economic growth in Asia’s developing countries.

Urbanization is one of the defining trends of Asia’s economic transformation. With most of the GDP coming from urban areas, the quality and efficiency of Asia’s cities will determine the region’s long-term productivity and overall stability. Urban Operation Plan (UOP) 2012-2020 sets out the future direction and approach for ADB’s urban sector operations, one that actively addresses investment opportunities and program issues hindering the efficient, sustainable, and equitable development of cities.

Part of the ADB Economics Working Paper Series, this paper draws from ongoing lessons of the Millennium Development Goals’ process and proposes the “ZEN” set of post-2015 development goals: achieving zero extreme poverty (Z), setting country-specific “Epsilon” benchmarks for broader development challenges (E), and promoting environmental sustainability both within and across borders (N).