Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh today called upon Asian economies to step up efforts to address common challenges by investing resources in areas that help to empower all sections of the society.

Addressing the 46th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of Asian Development Bank, ADB, at Noida today, Dr Singh observed that there has been a significant reduction in poverty in many countries of the Asia- Pacific region. He however, said, inequalities have not fallen and some social indicators including malnutrition, health, and education have not improved significantly.

Dr Singh said, the benefits of rapid growth in the region must lead to betterment in the lives of the common people. He said equitable distribution of the fruits of the development should be achieved through empowerment of people.

The Prime Minister said that ADB should take the initiative to find innovative ways to channelize global savings into infrastructure projects. He said there is a need to create new productive job opportunities for the growing labour force to achieve inclusive growth.

He said, India is committed in promoting the benefits of regional integration. Dr Singh said, the Asian region is expected to play a crucial role in driving and stabilizing the global recovery process.

Stating that India has initiated measures to spur investment, the Prime Minister said, steps have been taken to fast track major infrastructure projects and introduced strong measures to achieve fiscal consolidation.

The Prime Minister added that India has introduced legal entitlements to work, education and information from public authorities and is also planning to provide the people a legal entitlement to food at affordable cost. He said direct benefits transfer programme will make its simpler for the beneficiaries to have access to benefits and will also eliminate corruption and wastage in delivery of public services.

Speaking on the occasion, Finance Minister P Chidambaram stressed the need to encourage investments to accelerate growth rate in the Asian region. He said investment can help the region to recover from the adverse impact of global economic slowdown. He urged for more economic reforms for the removal of poverty which is affecting the growth in the region.