The Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved 21.72 billion U.S. dollars in financing operations to Asian developing countries in 2011, a 14.5 percent year-to-year increase, according to its newly released 2011 Annual Report.

According to the report, nearly 1.8 billion Asians live on less than 2 U.S. dollars a day. Low-income countries are struggling to sustain economic growth and reduce poverty and a substantial proportion of the region's poor in middle-income countries. "Poverty reduction remains the greatest challenge for developing Asia and the Pacific,"ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda has said." Although significant progress has been made in reducing income poverty, large pockets of deprivation remain and disparities within and across countries continue to grow."

In order to make the process of economic expansion more conducive to reducing poverty, ADB supports its developing member countries in pursuing the goals of inclusive growth, environmentally sustainable growth and regional integration with all the instruments at its disposal-- from project finance and technical assistance to knowledge products and policy dialogue, the report said.

The annual report showed of the total 21.7-billion-U.S. dollar financing in 2011, 14.02 billion U.S. dollars came from ADB's ordinary capital resources and Special Funds, and 7.69 billion U.S. dollars from co-financing partners.