Kathmandu, May 8: Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya said that participants at the 33rd Asian Development Bank (adb) meeting held in Chiang Mai, Thailand showed keen interest in increasing many basis for subsidized loan for investment in alleviation of poverty in the Asian region.

Talking to rss at Tribhuvan International Aiport on his arrival here today, Finance Minister Acharya said matters relating to the programmes and policies of banks were discussed during the meeting and a necessity was felt for the banks to mobilize additional attention and new power for poverty alleviation.

Poverty is extensive in the Asia Pacific region and more that 50 million people in the South Asian region alone are poor, therefore we all should think and work towards poverty alleviation, Minister Acharya said.

Mr Acharya also said that the participating countries were of the view that a decrease in the capital of subsidized loan of banks for poverty alleviation would obstruct the success of poverty alleviation programmes.

At the meeting Japan announced that it would donate 10 billion us dollars in order to establish a Poverty Alleviation Fund to carry out works towards poverty alleviation and other donor countries were also positive towards this end, he added.

Responding to a query, Finance Minister Acharya said we should seriously consider our development projects which have become expensive and while planning projects we should take note of the economic, humanitarian and social aspect of Nepal.