TASHKENT — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Saturday opened its annual meeting in Uzbekistan, a first for Central Asia and a coup in the ex-Soviet state’s drive to be recognised as a regional economic power.
Some 3,000 participants — including heads of state, central bank governors and finance ministers — have flocked to the Uzbek capital Tashkent from among the development bank’s 67 member nations.
While Asia’s developing economies are well on the road to recovery from the effects of the global financial crisis, ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda told reporters that serious obstacles remain to long-term sustainable growth.
“While many challenges remain, we believe that recovery has taken firm hold,” he said.
“The big challenge now is to make the recovery sustainable over the long term…. Far too many of the region’s people remain poor and without access to essential public services and economic opportunities,” he added.
Kuroda also urged Beijing to loosen its grip on its currency, echoing comments made last month by ADB’s China country director, saying a more flexible exchange rate would benefit China as well as the region.
International critics have accused China of keeping the yuan undervalued to give its exporters an advantage by making their products cheaper. Beijing counters that the policy is needed for its manufacturers’ survival.
“I myself think that it is probably in the interest of the Chinese economy to make its currency more flexible,” he said.
He added, however, that any shifts on its currency policy ultimately had to be decided upon in Beijing.
Although the annual meeting is the 43rd of its kind, it is the first to be held in ex-Soviet Central Asia, a major recipient of ADB investment in the nearly two decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Rich in gold and uranium, Uzbekistan, the most populous country in this majority-Muslim region, has long sought to be recognized as a key political player in an area plagued by instability and ageing infrastructure.
While neighbours Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have profited heavily from opening up their considerable reserves of natural resources to foreign investment, Uzbekistan has charted a more cautious course since independence.
Now, as the last country in the region with largely untapped natural riches, Uzbekistan is being eyed with increasing interest by Western investors, said Ana Jelenkovic, a London-based analyst with think-tank Eurasia Group.
“Since the end of 2009 the rhetoric towards foreign investment has changed, so we’ve seen (Uzbek President Islam) Karimov and other members of the government indicating a very strong interest in attracting foreign investment this year,” she said.
Holding the annual conference in Uzbekistan “reflects growing interest from foreign investors”, including the ADB, she said.
The board of governors meeting formally opens on Monday morning and winds up with a final ADB news conference on Tuesday.
But the choice of Tashkent as a venue for the prestigious annual conference has raised eyebrows among civil society activists, concerned over Uzbekistan’s spotty record on human rights.
The NGO Forum on the ADB, a network of 250 civil society organizations which has monitored the bank’s operations since 1992, announced last week that it would be boycotting the event.
In a letter posted on the group’s website, it said that it could not in good faith attend the meeting, and called on the bank’s leadership to place a greater emphasis on individual rights.
“The ADB must respect the rights of local communities to development and livelihood rather than just serving the interests of the undemocratic, arrogant governments and businesses,” Hemantha Withanage of the Sri Lankan Centre for Environmental Justice said.
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