The Asian Development Bank (ADB) governing body met in Madrid, Spain, on Monday to discuss new strategies to fight poverty and better serve its members in the Asia-Pacific region in the next decade.

"We at ADB have set the stage for powerful change in the way we serve our developing member countries," Haruhiko Kuroda, president of the Manila-based bank, said during the two-day annual meeting of the ADB's Board of Governors, its highest policy-making body.

Strategy 2020, recently approved by the bank, focuses on economic expansion without overlooking the needs of the poor. The plan also highlights environmentally sustainable growth and increased regional integration in Asia.

"Our new long-term strategic framework...clearly defines a vision: the vision of an Asia and Pacific free of poverty; a region where the vast majority have joined hands on the path to prosperity," Kuroda said.

Established in 1966, the ADB is an international development finance institution whose mission is to help its developing members in the Asia-Pacific region reduce poverty and improve the quality of life.

However, despite an economic upturn in some countries in recent years, the Asia-Pacific region is still home to two-thirds of the world's poor, with 1.5 billion people, or three times the population of Europe, living on less than US$2 a day.

The situation runs the risk of worsening amid surging food prices.

"The challenges for Asia's unfinished development agenda are immense," Kuroda said, adding that soaring food prices are hitting the poor very hard.

It is estimated that more than one billion people in the Asia-Pacific region have been seriously impacted by the food price surge, as food expenditure accounts for 60 percent of their total expenditure basket.

In an urgent response, the ADB announced here Saturday that it will provide immediate budgetary support to some Asia-Pacific countries hit hardest by the rising food prices.

The ADB is also urging governments to step up investment, boost rural infrastructure and strengthen institutions to sustain higher farm output as medium and long term solutions.

"The absence of such measures could seriously undermine the global fight against poverty and erode the gains of the past decades," Kuroda said.

"The global fight against poverty will be won or lost in our region," he warned.

On the eve of its annual gathering, which began here Saturday, the ADB secured US$11.3 billion for its development fund to fight poverty in the Asia-Pacific region during the next four years.

The ADB is owned and financed by its 67 members, of which 48 are from the region and the rest from other parts of the globe, including the United States and Spain, the host country of the meeting.

In its new long-term strategy, the ADB said it would define its role through growth that is economically inclusive and environmentally sustainable, as well as through regional integration.

"We need to make growth more inclusive -- to expand access to opportunities so that all can participate, regardless of their individual circumstances," Kuroda said, adding that it would require strong, sustained investment in infrastructure and education, as well as in health programs and social services for the poorest.

Infrastructure development forms the single largest share of the ADB's lending operations.

In the coming years, the ADB will substantially intensify its focus on the environmental consequences of growth, including climate change, said Kuroda.

"Climate change is a fundamental threat to achieving Asia's development objectives, and to life and livelihoods," he said.

Within the next four years, environment and climate change would grow to represent a significant share of ADB's total lending and technical assistance, the bank's president said.

In terms of regional cooperation and integration, as Asia-Pacific countries grow, their leaders increasingly see the value of working together and of linking their economies.

"We are pleased to be part of such efforts," Kuroda said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 6, 2008)