The Asian Development Bank is likely to take up issues of regional concern such as the U.S. economic slowdown and the yen's weakness at its annual meeting this week, Japanese government sources said. Weakness in Japan,
U.S. likely topicsKyodo News Service
The ADB will also focus on poverty reduction and the promotion of information technology in the Asia-Pacific region as major topics at its three-day gathering starting Wednesday in Honolulu.
Japan, which will be represented by one of its two senior vice finance ministers, is poised to reiterate its policy of actively supporting developing nations, the sources said.
They also said an early economic recovery in Japan will likely be called for at the gathering, since that would have a positive impact on the region.
Asian economic growth is expected to slow to 5.3 percent this year from 7.1 percent on lower demand for exports, the ADB said last month.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Commerce Department has reported that U.S. gross domestic product rose to an annualized 2.0 percent in the first quarter of 2001 from a five-and-a-half year low of 1.0 percent in the preceding quarter. This, however, is still well below the 4.8 percent growth posted a year earlier.
Participants in the ADB meeting will assess the effects of the slowdown in the U.S. economy on Asian regional economies, the sources said.
The yen's weakness is also expected to be addressed as many Asian countries fear a weaker yen will put their export industries at a disadvantage and damage their overall economies, they said.
Finance ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations voiced concern about the yen's weakness at a meeting in Kuala Lumpur in early April.
On the sidelines of the ADB meeting, ASEAN finance ministers will hold talks with their counterparts from Japan, China and South Korea to flesh out their plan to forge a currency swap network to nip future financial crises in the bud. ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Asian Development Bank
