ADB abbr.
Asian Development Bank. 亚洲开发银行
- But politics at the ADB appears to be a losing game too.
- The ADB helps keep open what its president, Masao Fujioka, calls the "policy dialogue."
- Instead, Russians might even get paid by the West to work on the ADB's Vanuatu port project.
- There is an argument that because the ADB's real purpose is not just economic but political it's worth marginally warping markets.
- That would give them a license to roam Asia on the ADB payroll, carrying the badge of a multilateral organization that hands out loans averaging $47 million apiece.
- Mr. Fujioka and the ADB will probably continue to sidestep the political manifestations of economic rivalries for a few more years.
- Currently the U.S. and Japan each have about 12% of votes in the ADB.
- India and China are not eligible because other international development institutions are supposed to meet their needs, since their size would mean them taking a very large proportion of ADB concessional resources.
- Government officials from Japan, the U.S. and other ADB members see special funds as a way to gain influence when voting power is inflexible.
- Japan's financial contributions and the increase in Japanese employees at the ADB are widely seen as signs of a genuine commitment by Tokyo to developing Asia.
- Last year, the ADB approved loans totaling $2 billion, just 5% higher than the previous year, and 10% below the peak lending year of 1984.
- When he took over the presidency in 1985, the bank's capital was Dollars 6.3bn; it is now Dollars 22bn. But a bank is ultimately only as strong as its customers, and Africa's worsening economic environment has also created problems for the ADB.
- Afghanistan's representative, Mohamad Kabir, asked the ADB to let the Soviets join.
- While Asia's developing countries badly need non-project financing, the ADB has been unable to find sufficient outlets for its funds.
- The U.S. is reluctant to increase ADB funding partly because of its own budgetary restraints, and because it disapproves of the bank's lending policies.
- The interim governor for the U.S., Charles Dallara, said that Washington has "had problems" with recent ADB projects as well.
- Soon after Chinese troops killed demonstrators in Beijing last June, the ADB suspended lending to China for commercial projects.