Enhancing Asian Development Bank Support to Middle-Income Countries and Borrowers from Ordinary Capital Resources

Abstract

Providing effective assistance to borrowers from ordinary capital resources (OCR) is essential if the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is to achieve its vision of an Asia and Pacific region free from poverty. It is also an important part of the institution’s broader efforts to enhance its relevance, responsiveness, and results orientation.1 In June 2004, ADB began exploring how it could enhance its support to borrowers from OCR, also referred to for the purpose of this paper as middle-income countries (MICs). The work focused on three mutually reinforcing objectives: (i) to review the main development challenges facing this diverse group of countries; (ii) to articulate the countries’ demands and expectations of ADB’s role in helping them meet these challenges; and (iii) to discuss how ADB can improve its services to borrowers from OCR. Similar exercises have been or are being carried out by other multilateral development banks (MDBs), including the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and these have been taken account of in this report.