The ADB was formed in 1966 as a vehicle for regional suppression of national liberation struggles, especially in Vietnam. Some of its first projects were undertaken in cooperation with U.S. pacification plans for the region. And the ADB continues to fund projects designed to strengthen imperialist control and defeat any struggles which threaten neo-colonialism. The ADB is based in Manila and has 60 member countries. Donor countries include the U.S., Japan, Australia, Germany, France and other wealthy nations.
Recipient countries are poor, oppressed countries in Asia and the Pacific.
Among the largest debtor countries to the ADB are Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, India and Vietnam. The ADB is a for-profit bank that makes its money by making loans to some of the poorest countries in the world. It funds infrastructure projects like dams and communications systems that benefit the capitalists but impoverish the poor. It makes agricultural loans that force peasants to plant export crops that require huge inputs of fertilizers and pesticides, depriving poor farmers of food crops and polluting the land and water on which the people rely. So they have the most control over which projects are funded, the conditions imposed on loans, and the awarding of contracts to private companies.