TITLE: ADB in Asia : Creating Poverty through Corporate Colonization

AUTHOR:

ORG: ADBwatch-UH-Hawai'i

DATE: April 29, 2001

Mobilize Honolulu May 4-11 2001!!! In May 2001, a little-known institution called the Asian Development Bank will hold its Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii. As it has done for the last 35 years, Bank staff and directors will meet behind closed doors to make decisions that will affect people living throughout Asia and the Pacific-decisions that have impoverished the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and wreaked environmental destruction. Like other international financial institutions, the ADB has come under increasing fire in recent years. At the ADB's last Annual Meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand, thousands of Thai villagers demonstrated for three days outside the Bank's meeting place demanding that the Bank stop several projects. The ADB is hoping to avoid controversy by holding its upcoming meeting in Honolulu. What is the ADB? The Manila-based Asian Development Bank was created in 1966 to provide loans and technical assistance to so-called "developing" countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The Bank has lent billions of dollars to governments and private companies, mainly for large-scale resource exploitation and infrastructure development projects, such as roads, dams and coal-fired power stations. Together with the World Bank and the Japanese government, the ADB has also played a major role in promoting deregulation, economic liberalization and privatization in the region over the last 34 years. What is the US role in the ADB? Japan and the US are the two largest funders of the ADB. Our tax dollars go toward supporting this little known and unaccountable institution. A board of 12 Executive Directors governs the operations of the ADB and its 2000-person staff. Japan and the US are the two largest shareholders in the ADB, together controlling more than 32% of the voting power within the Bank. The ADB-poverty reduction or poverty creation? Poverty is a vivid reality for millions living in Asia. While the ADB declares 'poverty reduction" to be its most important mission, its project often lead to further impoverishment of the poor. The ADB promotes and imposes a development model based on rapid economic growth and free market reforms. These policies fail to recognize the value of subsistence livelihoods and their contributions to national economies. ADB-supported infrastructure projects, such as roads and dams, have destroyed the natural resource base upon which communities depend and have damaged the social fabric of the region. At the same time, these projects serve to transfer money and resources into the hands of local elite and foreign corporations. The ADB's plans for privatizing basic government services in the region have largely backfired as prices have skyrocketed and the poor can no longer afford energy and water services. The ADB fails to recognize the impacts of its own policies. Instead, the Bank continues to promote more loans to developing countries and encourages them to restructure their economies toward the export of goods and services. For developing countries, this strategy has resulted in increased debt, impoverishment and environmental destruction, and has increased their vulnerability to the ups-and-downs of foreign markets. Meanwhile, developed countries have benefited from a flurry of contracts for Western corporations. Today, the poor are sending more money to the rich than the other way around, and all in the name of poverty reduction. Unaccountable and Undemocratic The ADB operates in a secretive and undemocratic manner and is unaccountable to those whose lives and livelihoods it affects. Decisions on large projects with significant social and environmental impacts are made in remote offices at the central government or international level with little input from members of civil society or the local communities who are the intended "beneficiaries" of development projects. The ADB is not accountable to the people affected by its projects and programs, nor to the taxpayers in donor countries whose money supports the Bank, its staff and operations. By its own analysis, more than 40% of ADB projects fail to achieve their stated objectives. Neither the ADB as an institution-nor its highly paid staff-accept legal, financial or moral responsibility for these failures. Project development studies and environmental and social impact assessments of ADB-funded projects and programs are not subject to public hearings and independent peer review and are often undertaken by consultants who have a vested interest in the implementation of these projects. In several donor countries, the income received by private companies through project contracts with the ADB is equal to, or greater than, the amount contributed to the ADB by these countries. The ADB is simply a mechanism for donor governments to subsidize their own domestic private sector. Asian Development Bank WATCH Asian Development Bank Watch (ADB-Watch) is a network of environmental, indegenous rights, social and economic justice, human rights, religious, and development groups and concerned citizens. Our work involves Raising awareness about the ill effects of the ADB Creating dialogue around environmental and social justice issues surrounding the ADB Building solidarity with local communities in Asia and the Pacific Articulating and exploring alternatives to the destructive policies and projects of the ADB A Global Call To Action From ADBWatch Hawaii Join the campaign against the Asian Development Bank ADB Annual Meeting * Honolulu May 9-11 Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Events May 5-11 2001 No Aloha for the ADB ! Join the Global Movement for Justice! Expose the Destructive Policies and Projects of the ADB! The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a multilateral sister of the World Bank that funds projects which create poverty and undermine local control and cultural rights throughout Asia and the Pacific. The ADB is holding its Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawai'i from May 9-11. Parallel NGO event opportunities May 5th to May 11th ADBwatch Hawai'i invites you to join in and create non-violent activities and events challenging globalization and the ADB's record of imposing destructive and oppressive policies, projects and programs on communities throughout Asia and the Pacific. ADBwatch is a broad network of people working for economic justice in Hawai'i, and includes youth, students, economic and environmental justice and human rights activists, Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) cultural rights activists, clergy, academia, and unions. The ADB Annual Meeting was originally scheduled for Seattle but after massive WTO protests in Nov/December of 1999, the venue changed to Honolulu with the expectation of avoiding resistance and scrutiny. Atlast year's ADB Annual Meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand, 5,000 Thai villagers and farmers protested for 3 days against water usage fees being imposed by the ADB. Keep the pressure on! Help to expose ADB's destructive policies and show the world there is no aloha for the ADB. Show the World that There is NO ALOHA FOR THE ADB!! ADBwatch challenges financial institutions that perpetuate economic terrorism. Our goals: Educate the public on specific ways that ADB (and globalization) increases the gulf between rich and poor Identify ways that globalization impacts people and resources in Hawai'i Identify the impacts of globalization on cultural and economic rights of indigenous peoples Help to unravel the corporate myth of Hawai'i as paradise. Hawai'i is occupied by the US military, colonized politically and economically and we face serious pollution problems. The rights of the Kanaka Maoli are under serious increasing attack by the US and state governments and now by organized right and Campaign for a Colorblind America, a conservative racist, anti-affirmative action organization. For more information, contact us: ADBwatch-UH-Hawai'i 2465 Campus Road RIO Box # A-4 Honolulu, Hawai'i 96822 E-mail: adbwatch@lava.net   END top