What is the full form of ADB?

The full form of ADB is Asian Development Bank. ADB is a regional development bank with the dual objectives of assisting and bolstering efforts to eradicate extreme poverty in Asia and the Pacific and achieving a stable, healthy, versatile, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific.

ADB was established throughout Asia and the Pacific to combat poverty and promote economic expansion, mutual aid, and development. There are 67 members total, 48 of them are from the Asia-Pacific region. Providing loans, grants, and technical assistance fosters the member nations’ social and economic growth and development.

• The ADB concept was founded in the first decade of the 1960s. At the 1963 First Ministerial Conference on Asian Economic Cooperation, it was decided to establish the ADB.
• With a 31-member committee, ADB was founded on December 19th, 1966, and Takeshi Watanabe was elected its first president. ADB first focused on the expansion of agriculture and food processing.
• The Asian Development Fund was founded in 1974 to provide low-interest loans to its weakest members.
• To be more accessible to those who needed it the most, the first field office in Bangladesh was founded in 1982.
• It began initiatives to improve the banking sector in the middle of 1997, during the financial crisis in the area, by approving the Republic of Korea’s largest loan worth $4 billion annually.
• It spent more than $800 million in 2004 on reconstructing tsunami-affected areas in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives.
• In 2008, a brand-new worldwide policy framework called “Strategy 2020” was introduced to address the region’s expanding needs.
• In 2014, a systematic mid-term assessment of Strategy 2020 was published, and various operational adjustments were started to strengthen and better the company’s operations.

The following are the fields where ADB operations are significant:

• Environment
• Finance Sector development
• Education
• Regional integration
• Infrastructure