Asia's development challenges to figure in ADB meet

Hyderabad, May 2 (UNI) The stage is set for a four-day 39th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) beginning here tomorrow to discuss the development challenges faced by Asia due to global imbalances.

The role of India and South Asia in a region that is rapidly integrating and the Asia-Pacific region's massive infrastructure needs will also figure prominently during the discussions at the ADB's second meet to be held in India since 1990, bank sources said.

The meet, to be formally inaugurated on May five, will bring together top economists, government officials, ministers, academics, journalists and investment bankers among others.

The meeting is taking place in the context of an economically buoyant Asia-Pacific Region which, according to the ADB, will achieve an overall economic expansion of 7.2 per cent in 2006 and seven per cent in 2007.

Delegates will be looking at how to address poverty in the context of these challenges and in particular, how ADB could respond to the region's changing needs.

Besides the business sessions and seminars, other events of interest will be ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers' meeting on the sidelines, an Open Forum on ADB-NGO Cooperation and the Governors' seminar.

Complementing these, the annual seminar series this year will address such themes as 'Knowledge-Based Economies in the 21st Century', Transforming Asian Economies with E-Services, Asian economic integration, infrastructure, and sustainable energy dvelopment.

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