ASIA: The Asian Development Bank’s crusade against...

ASIA: The Asian Development Bank’s crusade against poverty faces a cash squeeze and pressure to ensure its projects respect the environment, delegates at its annual meeting said last week. But they postponed decisions on resuming lending to China, halted after the political crackdown in mid-1989, and on funds for India, desperately short of foreign exchange because of the Gulf War crisis. After 25 years and loans totaling $32.5 billion to a continent that is home to half the world’s desperately poor, the bank must take a new direction, delegates said. The 51-member bank, which groups rich donors and developing countries such as newly joined Mongolia and Turkey, can no longer narrowly focus on construction projects but also needs to speed economic and social reform.