9
STATEMENT BY FINANCIAL SECRETARY AT
11TH ANNUAL MISTING OF AGIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK
The following is the statement made by the Financial Secretary,
Mr. Philip Haddon-Cave yesterday (Tuesday) at the 11th Annual Meeting of the
Asian Development Bank in Vienna :
"Both you, Mr. Chairman, and the President, have effectively
surveyed the Bank's recent performance and have sought to take a view of
the Bank's role in the economic and social development of this immensely
diverse region is the second decade of its existence. Your joint analysis
deserves to provoke and I am sure it will a wide ranging debate for some
time to come. I shall confine myself this afternoon to making five disparate
points.
++
"The first one concerns the relatively low level of loan disbursements
to date. Over the period 1968 to 1977, loan commitments have increased faster
than both disbursements and contracts awarded and the implication of the chart
on page 24 of the annual report is that a disproportionate share of the Bank's
staff resources is being devoted to new loan approvals, as opposed to the
effective implementation of projects already approved. This is not the Bank's
/fault, but ...............