The Asian Development Bank Between the Crises: Pursuit of Competitiveness, 2001-2007

Abstract

This is the second of three linked working papers which analyse the discourse produced by the Asian Development Bank, principally in successive Asian Development Outlooks, from 1996-7 onwards. Very extensive use is made of direct quotation, in order to provide substantial illustration of the analysis offered. The papers will serve as a point of reference for more synthetic analysis to be developed elsewhere. It may be, too, that they will serve a purpose to other researchers interested in the arguments developed by the Bank over the period. An identical common introduction, setting out briefly the analytical framework adopted, appears in each of the three papers. It situates the analysis in a classical Marxist framework which interprets the production of discourse and ideas in its material context, presenting the ADB as a representative of 'Asian capital in general', committed to the development of capitalism on a global scale, and adapting its discourse from moment to moment in accordance with the changing material context – in the global economy, and in Asia. This second paper covers the period from 2001 to 2007, a period that sees the articulation by the Bank of a programme for the transformation of production and social relations across Asia, with the objective of achieving competitiveness in the global capitalist economy. Within this programme, the expansion of trade and the attraction of foreign direct investment were seen as important because they were sources of competition and of access to advanced methods of production. At the same time, the Bank promoted reforms to financial systems, and continued to press for a wider programme of structural reform, in particular in relation to labour flexibility and social protection. As a consequence, the region was well placed when the global financial crisis broke in 2007.