ADB plans assistance to municipalities

BY V L Srinivasan

Published on March 10, 2006

HYDERABAD: In an effort to boost infrastructure development in urban areas, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) was considering to provide assistance directly to municipal bodies without sovereign guarantee from Indian government, its president Haruhiko Kuroda said on Thursday.

There was room for intensifying ADB's effort in improving urban structure, he said during an interaction with bureaucrats after a lecture on ''investing in infrastructure: key to economic growth'' at the administrative staff college of India here.

Pointing out that education sector in Japan was being denationalised, he favoured a greater role for the private sector in higher education in India. Acknowledging the increasing role of foreign direct investment in development of infrastructure, he said China was attracting USD 50 to 60 Bill FDI investments in infrastructure projects annually and the exports sector was booming in the last 10 years.

Predicting an energy crisis in the Asian countries in the future, particularly in fast growing economies like China and India, he said attention should be paid to use water resources wisely and double the efforts to develop technologies to conserve it.

Pointing out that agriculture accounted for 75 per cent of the world water consumption, he called for doubling of efforts to reduce water consumption even while improving productivity and commended the efforts of the international rice research institute at Philippines.