5
Thursday, April 26, 1973
#But we must not lose sight of the fact that the institution to
which we all belong, the Asian Development Bank, was established primarily
as a bank whose operations must stem mainly from its ordinary capital resources,
he stressed.
While the Bank was a most suitable multilateral institution
through which the flow of economic assistance from the developed world
to developing Asia could be efficiently channelled, "this must remain
a subsidiary role if the Bank's fundamental nature and character are not
to be substantially changed," he added.
"By definition, special operations will necessarily cease to be
'special' if their scope becomes as large as, or even greater than, that
of ordinary operations."
Hr. Chan commended the management on its decision last year to
adopt a new liquidity policy which aimed at maintaining liquid assets at
not less than two-thirds of projected loan disbursements over the next
three years,
"This was a sensible move which was more realistically geared to the
Bank's liquidity requirements," he remarked.
While he regarded the original policy of maintaining 100 per cent
commitment cover not wrong in any way, continued adherence in the circumstances,
he said, would have been "unnecessarily cautious."
It would also have resulted in tying up an excessive amount of liquid
resources which could otherwise be used to generate higher income from
longer-term investments in remunerative projects, he added.
Note to Editors:
Copies of the full text of the speech are distributed separately in the G.I.S. press boxes.
0
/6
11