ADB CHIEF SAYS CHINA LIKELY TO BORROW 300 MLN DLRS
China is likely to borrow up to
300 mln dlrs this year from the Asian Development Bank (ADB),
president Masao Fujioka said.
    The loans would be China's first from the ADB.
    "I think there will be at least one loan to China this year,
and possibly a second," Fujioka told a news conference at the
end of the ADB's annual meeting here.
    Asked how large the loans were likely to be, Fujioka said
he thought they would range from 100 mln to 150 mln dlrs each.
    China is the ADB's newest member, joining in March 1986.
    China is the third-largest shareholder after Japan and the
U.S.. It was elected to the ADB's 12-member board yesterday.
    Fujioka announced that the ADB's 1989 meeting would be held
in Peking. The 1988 meeting will be held in Manila.
    Fujioka said the ADB would consider delegates' suggestions
that it set up a task force of experts to define its future
role. The ADB's performance was criticised by both its rich and
poor members at the three-day meeting just finished.
    External experts had carried out a study on ADB policy for
the 1980s, Fujioka said. He said a similar study for the 1990s
would be useful, but the ADB had no fixed ideas yet.
    He said the ADB had already responded to members like the
U.S., Which urged it to improve analysis of funded projects.
    "We had already decided that the ADB should strengthen its
research capability," Fujioka said.
    He said ADB lending had declined, but "the amount is not the
only thing that counts. We also want to be a catalyst by taking
innovative measures like the promotion of the private sector."
    Fujioka also talked of the struggle between the U.S. And
Japan over their voting power in the ADB.
    Total Japanese contributions to the ADB are higher than
those of the U.S., So Japanese delegates asked for their voting
power to reflect this. The U.S. Opposed the move.
    "It is advisable and wise, for institutions like the ADB to
be viable, that there be a reasonable relationship between
financial contributions and voting power," Fujioka said.
    But he indicated the problem remained unresolved.
    Asked if the ADB would respond to a plea by Vietnam to
resume lending which was cut off in 1974, Fujioka re-iterated
his view that conditions there were not conducive to banking.
    Fujioka declined to elaborate on Vietnam, but said there
had been no pressure from the U.S. Or any other country on the
issue.
    He also spoke about demands by the bank's financiers that
it take a more active role in prodding borrowers into making
economic policy changes.
    "The initiative must come from the borrowing country. We
don't accept that we impose policy conditions. There must be a
two-way consultation," he said.
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