Japanese Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa opened the 20th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank by holding out the promise of more Japanese money for the organisation. We are ... Striving to enhance the flow of capital from Japan to the developing countries he said. The Asia-Pacific region is an area of special concern for us in our bilateral and multilateral assistance. He said Tokyo was ready to study setting up a special Japanese fund at the ADB like the one at the World Bank. The World Bank fund is earmarked for use by developing countries. Developing countries and the United States have criticised Japan for failing to use its trade surplus to help poor countries. Later this week Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone is expected to tell President Reagan that Japan plans to extend as much as 30 billion dlrs to developing countries over the next three years Japanese officials said. The exta ADB funding would be part of that amount. Our cooperation is intended to contibute to ... Alleviating the burden on (developing countries) said Miyazawa who is also chairman of the ADB board of governors. The developing countries today find themselves in a very difficult situation he said. With a few notable exceptions those countries that are highly dependent upon commodity exports face a rough road ahead. While the developing countries can help themselves by striving to become internationally competitive and seeking to attract foreign investment the ADB also has a role to play he said. Miyazawa told the meeting the bank must beef up its economic advice program to developing nations and must work vigorously to identify development projects for loans. He also called for more use of loans that were not tied to development projects but provided more overall help to the borrower. ADB President Masao Fujioka supported Miyazawas view. The bank has been fondly described as the family doctor Fujioka said. The bank will now have to equip itself to meet a range of services required to attend to varied needs of its developing members. Miyazawa told the meeting Tokyo was ready to allow its Export-Import Bank to co-finance ADB loans. These would not have to be used for the purchase of Japanese equipment. Tokyo was also prepared to let the Asian Development Bank raise more funds in Tokyo and financial markets should it need to do so he said.
JAPAN HOLDS OUT PROMISE OF FUNDS FOR ASIAN BANK