HONOLULU (AP) - President Bush called for "concrete, measurable results" from the Asian Development Bank and other regional lenders Wednesday as the bank opened its annual meeting amid native Hawaiian pageantry and peaceful anti-bank protests. Bush urges results
from Asian bank, protesters
pledge no violence
By David Briscoe
Associated PressBush, breaking tradition by skipping the U.S.-hosted meetings, said in a written message from Washington that reforms in Japan and other countries will ensure growth and prosperity in the region. He also promised to keep U.S. markets open to Asian trade.
Several hundred protesters amassed behind barricades in front of the Hawaii Convention Center's glass facade, but they maintained order as bank President Tadao Chino walked out into the street for a 10-minute dialogue.
Chino smiled as bank delegates applauded his departure to meet with demonstrators and then greeted him with more applause as he strode back in.
"Hey, hey. Ho, ho. The ADB has got to go," the crowd chanted as Chino talked with activists from the Philippines, Laos and Thailand. They read him a statement demanding changes in the bank's policy of fighting poverty by funding projects such as dams and power plants.
Chino thanked the protesters and told them the ADB would consider their concerns. Protest leader Walden Bello shouted back to Chino: "We demand that you listen to us. You must agree to shut down destructive ADB projects."
Bush's long-distance advice followed the sometimes testy U.S. relations with the Asian bank under the Clinton administration. One U.S. official at last year's meeting in Thailand called the bank structure a "hodgepodge" and showed reluctance to fully embrace bank funding goals.
"We look to the Asian Development Bank to maintain the highest standards of accountability," Bush said, "and we look for concrete, measurable results, as we do with all multilateral development banks."
U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, in his opening address as head of the bank's board of governors, elaborated on Bush's advice to the bank: "They also need to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their own lending through greater selectivity, better coordination with other lenders and more effective monitoring of performance," O'Neill said.
He said the Bush administration takes seriously its responsibility to perform optimally, "for its own people and for the world."
Globally, too, he said the foundation for recovery is in place.
O'Neill warned, however, that Japan, after 10 years of sluggish growth, needs to achieve strong, stable growth. He welcomed new Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's statements indicating a commitment to reform.
Bank President Chino of Japan said growth for Asian economies is expected to be slower this year and next. He said the slowdown reflects a global slowdown and weakness in technology and electronics businesses.
While Asian economies have become more resilient, more economic management and reform is needed, including corporate restructuring, fiscal consolidation and improved governance, Chino said.
"Despite unprecedented and unparalleled economic growth in many Asian countries over the past three decades, Asia still remains home to two-thirds of the world's poor," Chino said.
Security officers in colorful "aloha" shirts guarded the vulnerable glass-fronted building some authorities had feared might be a target for protester slingshots. But the crowd marched away peacefully after an hour-long rally.
The government bankers' business was to develop strategies to alleviate poverty in a region with 900 million people living on less than a dollar a day.
The Philippines-based international lending agency provided $5.8 billion in loans last year for Asian and Pacific projects.
The Honolulu meeting follows the bank's 2000 meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand, which drew 2,000 protesters against a huge wastewater treatment project near Bangkok.
Protest have also rocked or shut down other recent meetings, beginning with the collapse of the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle.
Asian Development Bank
