ADB should step up its role as a catalyst for regional integration

THE name Haruhiko Kuroda is synonymous now with inflation that is targeting the Bank of Japan, but 10 years ago, when he was president of the Asian Development Bank, Mr Kuroda's chief concern was the need for Asian economic integration. The Business Times described him at that time as "The Integrationist".

So, it is interesting to see that the ADB's Independent Evaluation Unit (which monitors the bank's performance from the outside - as it were - on behalf of its shareholders) saw a need to pull the Manila-based institution's attention back to the need for regional integration in a report published this week.

It was right to do so, and even more right to point to the need for increased cooperation between the ADB and China's new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), as well as for cooperation with the Silk Road Fund conceived by Chinese President Xi Jinping.