ADB spells out RCI strategy for 2008

Faisalabad: Asian Development Bank Regional has announced that the Regional Co-operation and Integration (RCI) activities will be pursued across the four pillars of the RCI strategy during 2008.

According to a working plan of ADB, for pillar 1 (cross-border infrastructure), investments in multi-sector tourism facilities, energy, and transport infrastructure will form the RCI-related lending and grant assistance, which is estimated at $446 million. These projects will help harmonise cross-border regulations in the relevant sectors, covering the regions of South, Southeast, Central and West, and East Asia.

ADB report revealed that the co-operation and integration program for pillar 2 (trade and investment), pillar 3 (monetary and finance), and pillar 4 (regional public goods) in 2008 will be largely non-lending projects and RETAs, with volume estimated at $93 million. These will focus on improving regional economic competitiveness, resiliency of the monetary system and the finance sector, sector-focused policy development, knowledge building, and capacity building of institutions. For pillars 2 and 3, ADB will expand operations in Central and South Asia. For example, the Central and West Asia Department (CWRD) will allocate about $2 million for the remittances study and regional pension and insurance study.

For pillar 4, ADB will support initiatives covering global and common issues for Asia and the Pacific to address climate change, environment degradation, preparedness against natural disasters, communicable diseases (HIV/AIDS), and human trafficking.

In 2008, ADB will continue to strengthen the sub-regional co-operation programs it has supported. Formulation of the RCS and RCS reviews will contribute to sharpening the visions for the co-operation programs. Departments also will continue to mobilise financing for RCI projects, including the use of the recently established RCI fund. As of October 2007, about $11 million of the $40 million fund has been committed.

In 2008, ADB will work towards the implementation of its bank-wide gender action plan (2007-2010). The plan translates ADB's commitment to gender equality and women's empowerment, as expressed in the Policy on Gender and Development (1998), into concrete actions. It proposes a renewed commitment to gender mainstreaming, and identifies a balanced set of activities through which ADB operations will continue to lead to tangible gender equality results. The principal proposal is to continue to ensure that gender equality issues are addressed in all ADB projects. The current project pipeline shows 37% of projects in 2007 having, either, a gender and development theme classification, or effective gender mainstreaming.

In 2008, ADB will implement 477 Advisory and Regional Technical Assistance (ADTA) projects and approve 83 new ones. ADTA projects will focus on supporting operations where ADB is engaged in policy dialogue, and will build capacities of public institutions.

For 2008, about 70% of ADB's estimated $260 million-$300 million TA resources is for ADTA and RETA projects. To make ADTA more effective and relevant to DMCs, the number of such projects in the portfolio is being reduced.

However, the number of TA projects under administration is expected to stabilise over the next 3 years. ADB Plan shows the envisaged sector distribution of the new ADTA projects in 2008. In terms of volume, the ADTA program will focus on road transport, financial sector, rural and urban infrastructure, energy sources and education.

ADB will carry out more than 200 non-TA economic, thematic and sector works in 2008. ADB Plan shows a large portion of these works being done by the operations departments. These take the form of country or regional economic and institutional diagnostics, as well as sector and thematic studies.

Studies to be performed by operations departments will focus on a variety of topics, including analysis of economic growth, decentrali