The event took place against the background of continuing uncertainty in global economy, resulted by the global financial and economic crisis.
 Given this fact, it looks like nonrandom that thematic focus of debates was on the issues of economic growth in Asia; they addressed the most pressing problems in the field of combating poverty, creation of energy efficient economies, improvement of environment.
According to ADB President H. Kuroda, developing Asia is very quickly recovered from the crisis and moving toward the V-shaped recovery. If in 2007 the increase was 9.6%, it dropped to 5.2% in 2009. Currently, the ADB expects growth of Asian economies to 7.5% in 2010, and about 7.3% in 2011. Here, China is continuing to be the locomotive of growth, whose GDP will reach 9.9% in 2011.
The estimates of the head of ADB are supported by many regional experts who believe that the stability of the leading and emerging economies of Asia has been largely achieved by the emergency anti-crisis programs aimed at minimizing the effect of destabilizing trends. Especially, in this context, the measures taken by China are marked out, which greatly helped to stabilize not only Asian, but also the world economy. Chinese government has allocated an unprecedented amount of funds, approximately $ 600 billion to fight the consequences of the crisis. In general, these measures were aimed at supporting export-oriented enterprises and the growth of domestic demand.
At the conference, Uzbekistan’s actions were distinguished as a model anti-crisis program. In his speech, H. Kuroda emphasized that the Uzbek economy, although having been undergone the global crisis, was able to emerge from this situation because of the Uzbek government’s quick and precise respond to it. According to him, the ADB expects that the economy of Uzbekistan will achieve growth of 8.5%, which is one of the highest in Asia. Therefore, it is apparent to hold a summit of the ADB in Tashkent, as well as the conclusion of a package of loan agreements between ADB and Uzbekistan for more than $ 1 billion.
Meanwhile, despite the rather optimistic ADB assessment of economic growth in Asia for the near future, yet it is worth noting that the Asian region is not a self-sustaining economic cluster, but is part of the global economy. This, in turn, leads to the fact that the processes in the economies of Europe, North America and Middle East have traditionally had, and will have an impact on the development of Asia.
The fact is that most Asian economies are excessively export-oriented. Most of their exports shipped to the markets of the USA and the EU countries, which, in their turn, are facing the decline in domestic demand because of the crisis. Of course, the situation in these markets, particularly in the U.S., are gradually recovering, but still, according to many reputable international institutions, it may take quite a long time to overcome the effects of the crisis.
According to the World Bank, from the second half of this year there will be some uncertainty in the global economy. The WB believes that over the next few years the global economy is to survive the consequences of the global financial crisis.
Simultaneously, IMF experts estimate that private consumption in the U.S., Japan and Europe remains weak and hampers global economic growth.  According to IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, currently, major threats that hold the global economy from recovering are high unemployment in some developed countries, public debt and sluggish economic revival. Moreover, because of problems with high levels of state debt, some countries of the world may face a new crisis. 
To date, potential catalysts of the crisis may become Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Dubai. If the problems with public debt, which could potentially lead to a sovereign default, continue to worsen, then the world would face a second wave of crisis, resulting in drastic fall in global demand. This, of course, could affect Asia, both the Asian exporters and exporters of raw materials.
The Asian Bank recognizes the seriousness of the problem, especially of Greece, which potentially can destabilize the market. To this, H. Kuroda said, "We in Asia cannot ignore the situation in the EU and should monitor the situation outside of our region”. However, he expressed hope that the package of EU financial aid for Greece will help to calm down the European market and save it from this shock.
At the same time at the summit, it was noted that Asia should not overly rely on foreign markets and in the long term, economies of the region should intensify efforts to improve their own stability.
As a first platform, it was noted that to improve long-term prospects Asia should begin to focus on regional demand as a major source of growth. Asia should see itself as not only a producer and exporter of its goods and services, but also as a consumer. Asia should tap its own large pool of savings for investments within the region.
Meanwhile, the change of structural orientations will also require, according to ADB experts, to make emphasis on institutional effectiveness. It was noted that the ADB during the last year adopted a new people strategy to strengthen its human resources management, streamlined its business processes, upgraded risk management and strengthened its anticorruption and integrity function. This year, it will review its independent accountability mechanism and public communications policy.
The second platform, on which sustainable economic growth in Asia will be based, should be the elimination of poverty, improvement of public welfare and purchasing power. Asia should also pursue a more socially inclusive growth. Mr. Kuroda said, ‘It will be a serious indictment of Asia's progress if we fail to address the gaps between the promise of a poverty-free Asia and Pacific region - and today's reality.’ 
It should be noted that the ADB in 2009 to support the Asian economies has allocated a record $ 16.1 billion in grants, loans and credits, which on a par with economic growth were to contribute to the overall well-being of the population of Asian countries.
The third platform for sustainable growth should be a bet on innovative energy-saving technologies, aimed, on the one hand, to reduce the energy consumption for production of one dollar of GDP, and, on the other, to place Asia in nomination of a leader in the creation and implementation of new energy sources. In the summit a new Asia Solar Energy Initiative was announced, which will serve as a major platform for sharing information on solar technologies, projects, products and issues; and facilitate transferring financial resources to developing countries to reduce technology costs. As part of this initiative, ADB has provided initial grant funding to establish the Asia Solar Energy Forum, which will serve as a knowledge platform. 
The introduction of clean energy technologies should also improve the environment and climate in Asia. ADB has committed itself to scaling up financial assistance for clean energy to at least $ 2 billion per year by 2013, and to mobilizing additional resources from public and private sources for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
At the ADB Summit, special attention was paid to the consolidation of efforts of Asian countries to increase economic resilience of Asia and the elevation of cooperation to a new level in the field of integration. H. Kuroda noted, ‘I believe it is time to work toward a truly integrated and globally connected Asia and Pacific region. Asia is ready to take the next step to weave the strands of sub-regional efforts into a garland encompassing the region as a whole.’ In doing so, ‘Asia can cooperate to prosper, and prosper to contribute to a more inclusive and brighter future for all’.

Rustam Makhmudov
Expert of the Center for Political Studies