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MADRID,
Spain—The
Philippine government has expressed its support for the
Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Long Term Strategic
Framework (LTSF) 2008 to 2020, or Strategy 2020, amid
criticism of the bank’s lending priorities.
The LTSF
was presented to participants of the ADB Annual
Governors’ Meeting (AGM) here on Sunday.
Finance
Undersecretary Roberto Tan told the BusinessMirror that
Manila sees the direction of Strategy 2020, which has
significantly increased its focus on the private sector,
as providing the ADB with the flexibility to respond to
various country needs.
“This
has to be tested or operationalized, [but] the
Philippines supports the [LTSF] since the ADB president
has given his assurance that it will be responsive to
country needs,” Tan said in an interview after the
Asean+3 meeting.
During
the presentation of the LTSF, several countries voiced
their support and expressed their concerns regarding
Strategy 2020.
Cambodia
expressed concern that the LTSF did not put emphasis on
poverty alleviation and felt that with this new
direction, countries like
Cambodia
will be left behind.
Cambodia
urged the ADB to continue focusing on poverty
alleviation to allow countries to meet the challenges of
rapid economic development.
The
country representative of
India
said that while increasing private sector lending is
welcome, the ADB must ensure that these should
complement public-sector lending.
India
also raised concerns on agricultural issues and said the
LTSF seemed unusually silent on the matter, particularly
at a time when commodity prices, particularly food
prices of staples like wheat and rice, have risen
sharply.
ADB
president Haruhiko Kuroda, on the other hand, said the
bank continues to keep in mind the needs of developing
economies and the importance of agriculture.
Kuroda
said the LTSF presents a clear vision for an Asia and
the Pacific that is free from poverty. The five areas of
focus are infrastructure, environment, regional
cooperation, financial development and education.
While it
is true that agriculture is not part of these key areas,
Kuroda said agriculture projects are included in
infrastructure and in other areas where these projects
can be classified under.
“We
continue to be engaged in agriculture through
infrastructure and financing. Our short-term response is
extending budgetary support for social safety nets while
in the medium to long term, we continue to strengthen
our support for the improvement of infrastructure and
financial systems,” Kuroda said during the LTSF
presentation.
The bank
earlier announced it will provide immediate budgetary
support to the hardest-hit countries in
Asia and the Pacific to ease their fiscal burdens and cushion the
impact of rising food prices on the poor and vulnerable.
Kuroda
said rising food and fuel prices have placed many
governments in the region under significant pressure to
put food on the tables of the poor and vulnerable.
Over a
billion people in the region are seriously impacted by
the food price surge as food expenditure accounts for 60
percent of the total expenditure basket. Food and energy
together account for more than 75 percent of total
spending of the poor in the region.
Rising
food prices threaten to undermine the region’s efforts
to fight against poverty and achieve the Millennium
Development Goals by 2015.
The ADB
will closely work with the affected governments in the
region to strengthen safety net programs for
food-stressed populations and emergency food security
reserve systems.
The ADB
is also supporting the International Rice Research
Institute and the International Food Policy Research
Institute to boost research and provision of inputs to
farmers to help overcome key constraints. |
