|
KYOTO,
Japan—President
Haruhiko Kuroda of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on
Sunday talked of inclusive and sustainable growth amid
challenges the Bank is facing particularly on improving
the quality of lives of people living in member
countries.
“The
seeds planted 40 years ago have flourished, bringing
tremendous benefits to the people of Asia and the
Pacific… [but] despite impressive progress, we cannot be
complacent,” Kuroda said at the ADB’s 40th Annual
Meeting of the Board of Governors here.
“Increased inequality across the region, and within
individual countries, threatens social cohesion and puts
at risk the process of growth itself…ours is
increasingly a region of two faces—the shining
Asia of vitality and wealth and its shadows, where desperate
poverty persists,” he added.
In his
vision of inclusive prosperity, Kuroda explained this
meant ensuring broad-based economic growth among
countries that generate jobs and income for the “620
million Asians still living on less than $1 a day and
raising the bar to encompass the 1.9 billion who have
less than $2 per day.”
“Quite
obviously, to address the problems of exclusion, we will
need to focus more intensely on enhancing the
capabilities of the poor,” he added.
Japanese
Finance Minister Koji Omi, who also chairs the ADB Board
of Governors, agreed even as he listed the new
challenges ADB is facing in the light of rapid growth in
the region.
“We are
now facing some challenges in order to sustain the
robust growth . . . and the ADB is expected to play
increasingly greater role in assisting the regional
countries’ efforts to overcome these new challenges,”
Omi told over 3,000 participants at the opening event.
Omi
highlighted three major challenges: investment
promotion, climate change and facilitating cooperation
in science and technology.
“Further
promotion of investment is necessary for ensuring
sustainable economic growth into the future,” he said,
calling as well for a stronger emphasis on private
investment.
ADB
should continue to play a central figure in
infrastructure construction by extending loans, support
efforts to improve investment climate and improve its
catalytic function on facilitating private capital flow,
he added.
On
climate change, Omi stressed the importance of creating
a framework beyond the Kyoto Protocol—which aims to
reduce emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon
dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide—such as the promotion
of alternative energy sources and of energy efficiency.
Civil
society organizations participating in the event,
however, accused the bank of contradicting itself with
its plans to continue funding fossil-fuel projects while
committing to invest up to $1 billion for clean energy
projects.
Omi,
meanwhile, added that innovations in science and
technology will enhance efforts balancing economic
activity and environmental protection, and in a sense
provide a ‘win-win’ solution for member countries.
“To
achieve prosperity that benefits all, we must use our
natural resources wisely so that the poor do not bear
the brunt of the environmental impact of growth . . . it
means seeing our environmental responsibilities not as a
cost but an investment in the future,” Kuroda said in
his speech.
Kuroda
likewise mentioned the Eminent Persons Group report
which suggested the bank should radically transform
itself, a process that has been initiated through its
Medium-Term Strategy II and review of its Long-Term
Strategic Framework. |
