Including RI, countries in Asia Pacific hit by 4 crises at once!

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ADB Annual Meeting

MAIKEL JEFRIANDO, CNBC Indonesia

News

Sunday, 05/05/2024 15:30 IWST

Foto: Annua Meeting Asian Development Bank ADB) .(Dok. ADB)

Tbilisi, CNBC Indonesia – The 2023 period will be a difficult year for countries in the Asia Pacific. This is because there are four crises that come at once and have a big impact on humans.

This was conveyed by the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Masatsugu Asakawa at the 57th Annual Meeting in Tbilisi, Georgia, Sunday (5/5/2024).

“Over the past year, our developing member countries (DMC) have faced the challenges of climate change, conflict, food insecurity and increasing debt,” he said.

The conflict in question is related to the major war between Russia and Ukraine that has not yet ended. Then a few months ago there was a war between Israel and Hammas and sparked tensions between developed countries.

This situation affects a series of issues related to the needs of many people. One of them is energy. The war caused energy prices, such as fuel oil, to rise drastically.

Developed countries may be better at mitigating. However, not enough developing and poor countries are able to handle it. One of them is due to budget constraints. Increasing debt is the solution for many countries having to face the challenge of high interest rates for a long time.

On the same occasion there is very extreme climate change. Indonesia also felt the impact of these four crises, although the government could mitigate them through various policies.

“The climate crisis in particular threatens development in this region. 2023 is the hottest year ever recorded. Last year also saw disasters, mostly caused by natural disasters, which affected around 44 million people in Asia and the Pacific,” explained Asakawa.

ADB ensures that it actively develops its mission to provide better support to its developing member countries in facing these challenges. Among other things, there is a commitment to new lending capacity of up to US$ 100 billion in the next decade.

Asakawa sees that countries in the Asia Pacific will be able to survive and continue to grow in the future even though they are in the midst of great challenges. “The outlook for Asia and the Pacific remains solid,” he stressed.

(mkh/mkh)