Asian Development Bank
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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established in 1966 to promote economic and social development in Asian and Pacific countries through loans and technical assistance.It is a multilateral development financial institution owned by 66 members, 47 from the region and 19 from other parts of the globe. ADB's vision is a region free of poverty. Its mission is to help its developing member countries reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of their citizens.
The work of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is aimed at improving the welfare of the people in Asia and the Pacific, particularly the 1.9 billion who live on less than $2 a day. Despite many success stories, Asia and the Pacific remains home to two thirds of the world's poor.
The bank was founded as a regionally focused clone of the IBRD (World Bank), with the primary impetus coming from the US, Japan and Western European (especially Nordic and Germanic) governments. The bank has traditionally funded its lending activities by issuing supranational-rated bonds in the euromarkets. For many years the bank was the only Asia-ex Japan issuer of eurobonds. Although recent economic growth in many member countries have led to a change in emphasis to some degree, throughout most of its history the bank has operated on a project basis, specifically in the areas of infrastructure investment, agricultural development and loans to basic industries in member countries. Although by definition the bank is a lender to governments and government entities, it has also participated as a liquidity enhancer and best practice enabler in the private sectors of regional member countries. The primary human capital asset of the bank is its staff of professionals, encompassing academic and/or practical experts in the areas of agriculture, civil engineering, economics, public policy and finance. These professionals are drawn from all across the globe and given various incentives to relocate to Manila, including diplomatic status and tax-free incomes. It is conceivable that once all of Asia-Pacific reaches a certain level of living standard the bank will be wound down or reconfigured to operate as a commercial enterprise.
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[edit] Organization
The highest policy-making body of the bank is the Board of Governors composed of one representative from each member state. The Board of Governors, in turn, elect among themselves the 12 members of the Board of Directors and their deputy. Eight of the 12 members come from regional (Asia-Pacific) members while the rest come from non-regional members.
The Board of Governors also elect the bank's President who is the chairperson of the Board of Directors and manages ADB. The president has a term of office lasting five years, and may be reelected. Traditionally, and because Japan is one of the largest shareholders of the bank, the President has always been Japanese. The current President is Haruhiko Kuroda.
The headquarters of the bank is at 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila, Philippines, and it has representative offices around the world. The bank employs approximately 2,400 people, coming from 53 of its 66 member countries, and with more than half of the staff being Filipino.
Since 2004 the Asian Development Bank has been under corruption investigation by the United State Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
[edit] ADB Lending
ADB's annual project lending amounts to about US$5 billion per year with lending per project being in the $100 million range.
[edit] Notable ADB projects and Technical Assistance
- Afghan Diaspora Project
- Earthquake and Tsunami Emergency Support Project in Indonesia
- Greater Mekong Subregional Program[2]
- PRC Ping Hu Offshore Oil and Gas Development
- Strategic Private Sector Partnerships for Urban Poverty Reduction in the Philippines
- Trans-Afghanistan Gas Pipeline Feasibility Assessment
[edit] Effectiveness
All projects funded by the Asian Development Bank are evaluated to assess their development effectiveness. There are two levels of evaluation—self evaluation and independent evaluation. All projects are self-evaluated by the ADB operations department in a project completion report. ADB’s project completion reports are publicly disclosed and are available on ADB’s Internet site. Client governments are also required to prepare their own project completion reports. A proportion of completed projects is also evaluated by ADB’s Operations Evaluation Department (OED). This department reports directly to the Development Effectiveness Committee of ADB’s Board of Directors. It does not report to the Management of the ADB and so its reports are considered to be independent. All OED reports are publicly disclosed (some evaluations of private sector operations are redacted to protect commercially confidential information). The reports are available on OED’s website. Evaluation is carried out to facilitate learning from past successes and failures and for reasons of accountability.
Increasingly, OED evaluates ongoing operations (particularly in country and sector program evaluations) and conducts a range of special studies on thematic topics and ADB policies. Evaluations are conducted in accordance with guidelines and a conflict of interest policy.
Of the 980 ADB-funded projects evaluated and rated by OED (as of December 2005), 64% were assessed as being successful, 29% partly successful and 8% as unsuccessful.
[edit] Members
Names are as recognized by ADB.
The year after a member's name indicates the year of membership. The largest share holders of the ADB are Japan and USA, each holding 12.8% of the shares [3]. At the time a country ceases to be a member, the Bank shall arrange for the repurchase of such country's shares by the Bank as a part of the settlement of accounts with such country in accordance with the provisions of paragraphs 3 and 4 of this Article.[1]
Taiwan initially joined as "Republic of China" as a founding member representing the whole of China. However, its share of Bank capital was based on the size of Taiwan's capital, unlike the World Bank and IMF where the government in Taiwan had had a share representing the whole of China prior to the People's Republic of China joining and taking Taiwan's seat. In 1986, a compromise was effected when the People's Republic of China joined the institution. Taiwan was allowed to retain its membership, but under the name of Taipei, China — a name it protests. Uniquely, this allows both sides of the Taiwan Straits to be represented at the institution.
[edit] Notes
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Bank Information Center
- The ADB website: http://www.adb.org
- ADB Institute: http://www.adbi.org
