ADB Building, Manila, Philippines. Credit: Exec8
By Rich Bowden
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has backed two key development projects in the Pacific.
The Bank and the Government of the Republic of Vanuatu inked a $US37 million partnership in support of the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) 2010-2014 aimed at “…reducing poverty and promoting private-sector led sustainable growth,” in the country, according to an ADB September 17 news release.
“The CPS provides a platform for ADB and the Government to work together to improve the effectiveness of the assistance earmarked under the strategy,” said S. Hafeez Rahman, Director General of ADB’s Pacific Department. “It will support Vanuatu’s fight against poverty and help the country meet some of its key development targets.”
According to the ADB, the bank’s financial support for the CPS will enable greater energy efficiency and improve access to markets and social services by its injection of funds into the country’s transport infrastructure. Rural areas, currently lacking electricity services will also benefit from the scheme.
The Bank says it will list as one of its main aims the boosting of the country’s private sector.
“The CPS aims to boost private sector development by continuing to assist the Government with improvements to Vanuatu’s business and legal systems, increasing access to finance opportunities, and reforming state-owned enterprises,” said Eugenue Zhukov, Regional Director of ADB’s Pacific Liaison and Coordination Office in Sydney.
In a statement released the same day, the Bank also announced $US26 million in private sector initiatives for the Solomon Islands over the next three years.
The Director General said the global economic crisis had made the Solomon Islands initiative “challenging.”
“The development context in the Solomon Islands is very challenging,” said Rahman. “With the Interim CPS, ADB is responding through a sharply focused strategy and program, which seeks to promote private-sector led economic growth through improved transportation infrastructure and services and a more conducive environment for business.”
Monitor ADB initiatives: Oxfam
The provision of extra funding to international monetary organisations such as the Asian Development Bank to help nations weather the global financial crisis has been welcomed by the governments of Pacific nations. However Oxfam Executive Director Andrew Hewett, writing in Online Opinion earlier this month, has cautioned that many funding initiatives launched by the Asian Development Bank have done communities more harm than good.
Oxfam logo. Credit: Oxfam
Mr Hewett cited the West-Seti Hydropower Project in Nepal and the planned coal-fired power plant project in the Philippines as two examples of ADB projects causing harm. The former “…will displace at least 9,096 people and cause social disruption among different ethnic minorities groups,” said Mr Hewitt in the September 9 opinion piece and the latter “…lacks a health program that monitors coal-ash related diseases,” in its Environmental Impact Assessment.
He called on governments to monitor the extra funding given to international monetary organisations to ensure they bring benefit to communities.
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