The Hindu : Front Page : ADB annual general meet takes off amid protests

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 04, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

ADB annual general meet takes off amid protests

Special Correspondent

Civil society groups stage rallies; impressive turnout of delegates

ALL SMILES: ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda with Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

HYDERABAD: The 39th annual general meeting of the Asian Development Bank got off to a businesslike start on Wednesday even as civil society groups and NGOs staged novel protests within the swank Hyderabad International Convention Centre, the venue of the meeting, and in several parts of the city.

At the very beginning, representatives of three villages of Thailand presented ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda a bowl of coal to protest against the Bank's funding of `dirty coal plants' resulting in severe illness of people living in the vicinity. However, the first day witnessed an impressive turnout of delegates from Asian countries and other parts of the globe.

Civil society groups and the Left parties had a field day conducting meetings outside the venue to air their dissent against the lending policies of the ADB which, they said, were crippling the developing countries.

Such hectic activity was missing inside the venue as a majority of the seminars and meetings were technical in nature. The interest is expected to pick up on Thursday when Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram along with his counterparts from Japan and China will share the stage with Mr. Kuroda on "fixing global payments imbalances."

A highlight of Thursday's proceedings will be the `Advantage India Day', an event that will help the country showcase a US $ 150 billion business opportunity in infrastructure and related sectors. The focus of India Day would be economic liberalisation, foreign direct investment (FDI) opportunities in the country and public-private partnership (PPPs).

This will be followed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the event on Friday, the third day of the AGM that would also feature some major events. Friday's events include a presentation by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

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