Even as reiterating its commitment to focus on inclusiveness and pro-poor growth, the Asian Development Bank is working on an action plan for improving governance and eradicating corruption, the Bank's President Haruhiko Kuroda said in Hyderabad on Saturday evening.

Addressing a media conference on the conclusion of the four-day 39th Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of ADB, Kuroda said that the governors expressed support for ADB's strategic priorities, which are set out in medium-term strategy II (MTS-II): catalysing investment, strengthening inclusiveness, promoting regional cooperation and integration, managing the environment and improving governance and preventing
corruption.

"Governors appreciated the specific emphasis of MTS II on improving governance and preventing corruption. In response to our recent review of ADB policies, we are developing an action plan to enhance ADB's effectiveness in these areas. And, we are working closely with others to develop a common framework on anti-corruption," he pointed out.

Several Governors noted the efforts ADB has made to be more selective and focused. Clearly, there is a broad consensus that MTS II will strengthen the impact of our assistance on poverty reduction, and better support the efforts of developing member countries (DMCs) to reduce poverty and attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)," he explained.

"The provision of infrastructure is essential to ensure the poor can participate in and benefit from the region's prosperity. Much more assistance is needed to meet the region's huge infrastructure demands. ADB is already scaling up infrastructure investments, particularly in the water and energy sectors," he pointed out.

The ADB president said that the private sector would have to play a crucial role in meeting Asia's infrastructure and other investment needs, improving productivity and reducing poverty. "MTS-II recognizes private sector development as a core business for ADB and proposes to increase our efforts to build vibrant, dynamic private sector environments in our DMCs," he added.

Expressing gratitude for the member-countries' support for ADB's efforts in regional cooperation and integration, he said that ADB would further strengthen its support in this area, recognizing the different needs of various countries and sub-regions. "We will remain in close consultation with other shareholders and other partners as we finalized our updated strategy," he pointed out.

He thanked the governors and other development partners for their strong support for ADB's major new initiatives, particularly the Energy Efficiency Initiative and the Carbon Fund, the Innovation and Efficiency Initiative and post-emergency reconstruction programmes.

"These initiatives will make a substantial contribution to Millennium Development Goal attainment, and strong partnerships are essential to make them successful," he said.

Kuroda said that some of these initiatives enabled ADB to be more responsive to the needs of middle income countries. "We now intend to follow through with similar efforts to address the specific needs of weakly performing countries," he added.