MANILA, Philippines - Rising inequality still remains as a long-term problem for the Philippines and the rest of the Asia and the Pacific region, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) president said Wednesday.
"Unfortunately, while the region has made remarkable progress in reducing poverty, the benefits of growth have yet to reach several hundreds of millions of Asians who continue to struggle on less than $1.25 a day," Haruhiko Kuroda said in a press conference marking the start of 45th annual meeting of the bank's board of governors.
Kuroda said the Asian region's economic prospects will be the key focus of the four-day meeting, sharing optimism with regard to the countries' growth momentum.
Rights campaigners yesterday opposed privatisation of education and healthcare services, saying that privatisation will take these facilities beyond the reach of majority of the population, including the poor.
Instead of privatisation, they demanded an increase in allocation for ensuring education, health, water and electricity for all.
These areas -- food, education and health -- offer scope to make more money, they said.

A day before the celebration of International Women's Day, JSAPMDD joined more than 500 women...
JSAPMDD, in collaboration with the NGO Forum on the ADB and the Freedom from Debt...
On April 10, 2011, JSAPMDD organized a roundtable discussion on tax and trade at Mesa...

JSAPMDD organized workshops during the Association for Women's Rights and Development (AWID) International Conference on...