The Philippine Online Chronicles

The former President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Shiro Inoe passed away in Japan at age 95 last July 11. Inoue is the ADB’s second President from 1972 to 1976. It may have been a relatively short period of time but the company grew a great deal with Inoue at the helm. The annual lending commitments of the company went up by over one hundred percent from 316 million USD from the time Inoue took the reins to 776 million USD when he turned the leadership over. This stellar record has made Inoue a real fixture in the corporate affairs of the ADB despite no longer being its President for the past three decades.

Aside from being a savvy business leader, Inoue was also a consummate humanitarian. During his term, the ADB supported projects that allowed for the development of indigenous energy resources. An ADB project that would eventually benefit countries that were not well off in terms of energy infrastructure. Inoue would also pave the way for the creation of the Asian Development Fund in 1974 – an entity that would help poor countries to get on their feet by giving out loans at fair and relatively easy to pay interest rates. This made the whole process of applying for loans by countries a lot easier to accomplish and process.

As of today, the Asian Development Bank operates in over 60 countries worldwide including most of Asia and Western Europe. The ADB headquarters is located in Mandaluyong City in the Philippine capital of Manila. According to the ADB’s official website, it has already approved a total of 16.1 billion USD in loans, grants, guarantees and other forms in helping countries curb poverty in the region. ADB has also been involved in cofinancing schemes and the figures also run in billions of dollars.

The current President of the ADB Haruhiko Kuroda has extended his sadness over the passing of Inoue and said that the former President would be deeply missed especially by those who have had the privilege of spending time with him in ADB.

The cause of death was said to be pneumonia.