|
MADRID,
SPAIN—Civil-society
organizations (CSOs) are asking the Asian Development
Bank (ADB) to reveal the names of some 40 offshore
private firms which allegedly received private- equity
funds from the bank.
In a
meeting with ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda Saturday,
CSOs flooded Kuroda with questions on the $600-million
private-equity funds that the bank invested in offshore
firms.
“The ADB
has environmental and social safeguards which must be
applied to private-equity operations, but we see no
evidence that this is happening,” said Red Constantino
of NGO Forum on the ADB, an Asian-led network of CSOs.
“We have
requested that president Kuroda release the names of all
companies and projects financed by these funds, as well
as all of their social and environmental assessments,”
he added in a statement that summed up the highlights of
the Kuroda meeting.
The CSOs
asked that the list be put out by the ADB the soonest
time possible. However, according to the CSOs, Kuroda
was not straightforward in his answers, leaving these
organizations and other stakeholders in doubt about the
ADB’s direction.
CSOs are
concerned about the impact of these private-equity
funds—specifically, on whether projects implemented
using these funds will be covered by safeguards,
particularly on environment, resettlement and indigenous
peoples.
“If the
ADB actually applied meaningful environmental and social
standards to private-equity funds, this would be a true
breakthrough in the realm of alternative investments,”
Stephanie Fried of the Environmental Defense Fund said
in a statement.
Last
week reports broke that over $600 million in ADB
investments went to 40 offshore private-equity funds,
many of which are domiciled in the Cayman Islands.
Titi
Soentoro of the Indonesian group NADI said the lack of
transparency in the use of these funds is a cause for
deep concern for all stakeholders.
Soentoro
said the bank should disclose the purpose for these
funds and how it figures in the bank’s vision to be an
agent for poverty alleviation.
“The
‘corporatization‘ of
Asia is obviously
the main agenda under the ADB’s Long-Term 2020
Strategy,” said Isagani Serrano of the Philippine Rural
Reconstruction Movement (PRRM).
“It is
clear 41 years after its founding that there is no
future for Asia’s poor under the ADB. Under the ADB,
physical, economic and political displacement of
communities in Asia will be massive,” Serrano said in a
statement.
The CSOs
also said these issues have caused an unprecedented
delay in the replenishment of the Asian Development Fund
(ADF).
The
replenishment of the ADF, they said, is usually agreed
upon months ahead of the ADB Annual Governor’s Meeting.
The ADF provides grants and low-interest loans to the
poorest countries in the Asia-Pacific.
The new
$11.3-billion ADF will cover the period of 2009-2012,
representing a 60-percent increase over the previous ADF
of $7 billion.
In a
press briefing, Kuroda said that an “overwhelming
majority” approved the Long-Term Strategic Framework (LTSF)
or Strategy 2020 which signified the commitment of all
donor- countries to replenish the ADF.
Kuroda
stressed that there were “no dissenting” opinions on
Strategy 2020 and that there was no truth to the rumor
that the United States voted against the LTSF and the
replenishment of the ADF.
However,
Kuroda admitted that there were “sequencing issues” that
need to be resolved. Still, he said, this has not
prevented donor-countries like the US from agreeing to
replenish the fund.
Kuroda
said the ADF will provide substantial resources for the
bank’s efforts to support roads, clean water,
electricity networks and other essential infrastructure
that seek to improve the lives of the poor and
accelerate growth. |
