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Region Overview
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The World Bank's primary focus is on helping the poorest people and the poorest countries. It is one of the world's largest sources of funding for developing countries. The Bank uses its financial resources and its experienced staff to help countries reduce poverty, increase economic growth, and improve the quality of life of their people.
In fiscal year 2004, the Bank provided the East Asia and Pacific region with US$2.57 billion in loans for development projects. Bank supported projects in the region have helped to increase education opportunities for poor children in Cambodia, reduce tuberculosis infections in China, rebuild Timor-Leste, help people in Indonesia improve their villages, repair thousands of roads in Vietnam and Indonesia, and increase incomes of people in rural China.
For example, in Indonesia, the Kecamatan Development Project provides grants to more than 30,000 local communities, which choose how their funds will be used. The project, financed by the World Bank, encourages local people to help identify their needs in a community-planning process, and then gives them tools to address obstacles. Communities have used the funds for roads, irrigation, clean water supplies, school buildings, health clinics, and for training programs. Since 1998 the project has helped communities upgrade more than 19,000 kilometers of rural roads, build more than 3,500 bridges, construct 2,800 clean water supply systems, and complete 5,200 irrigation projects.
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