News Releases

There is ample evidence that cross-sectoral interventions can accelerate effective achievement of the Health Millennium Development Goals, ADB Vice President Khempeng Pholsena told a high-level forum today.

ADB will study the socioeconomic implications of HIV/AIDS in the Pacific to help strengthen the regional response to the epidemic in the region through a technical assistance grant approved for US$300,000.

ADB will help improve the health status of Bangladesh's urban population, especially the poor, in six city corporations and five municipalities by providing a package of high-impact health services, through a US$40 million loan and grant package approved today.

ADB and the Government of Viet Nam today signed an agreement for a US$1 million grant to help improve the quality of life and livelihoods of poor communities in Viet Nam's central region through an innovative urban environmental improvement project.

ADB has a vital role to play in working with developing Asia to reach the full range of Millennium Development Goals, Ibrahim H. Canakci, Turkish Undersecretary of Treasury, said today.

The Asia and Pacific region is moving into a new era of development, ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda told the opening of the 38th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors today.

ADB today approved a US$197 million grant and loan package for two projects that will help rebuild tsunami- and conflict-affected areas of Sri Lanka. External funding for the projects will total $256 million including grant cofinancing by the European Commission and Sweden.

ADB will provide clean water and sanitation facilities to about 1,500 communities of rural Indonesia, including tsunami-affected areas, through an assistance package approved today comprising loans amounting to US$64.7 million and $16.5 million in an emergency assistance grant.

ADB has approved a US$1.75 million grant, from its Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, financed by the Government of Japan, to pilot new interventions for micronutrient enriched food in Indonesia to help reduce iron, iodine and vitamin A deficiency among low-income groups.

ADB will prepare a project to improve water supply and sanitation in areas of the southern Central region of Viet Nam, through a technical assistance (TA) grant approved for US$950,000.