Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda has expressed, on behalf of all staff, the sympathy and condolences to those concerned after a powerful earthquake hit an ethnic region in northwest China's Qinghai Province.

In a letter to Chinese Finance Minister Xie Xuren, Haruhiko Kuroda said, "The Asian Development Bank extends its sincere condolences to the People's Republic of China following the earthquake which struck Yushu County of Qinghai Province in the morning of 14 April 2010."

The Management and staff of ADB extend their deepest sympathy to those in Yushu County and the surrounding region who have lost family members, or whose family members have been injured, the letter said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 16, 2010)