Asian Development Bank: "We intend to expand cooperation with Uzbekistan."

The thickest thread in the interlocking economic web that keeps child slavery in place is of course the international cotton purchasers that allow the regime to profit from exploitation.  But international development banks have a not-insignificant role too, considering they provide loans for agricultural projects, technical assistance, and, critically, political cover for this appalling practice, with their "hear no evil, see no evil" approach.

The head of the Asian Development Bank, Haruhiko Kuroda, was in Uzbekistan on February 16 meeting with President Karimov in February, promising new loans and intensified cooperation.  Wonder if this means continued carte blanche to abuse children? Uzbekistan has already received loans from the bank totaling more than 1.2 billion USD.  The great irony is that while agriculture (especially irrigation) is the target of much of the ADB's lending, improving the quality of primary education  is the other.  You might think that encouraging the government to actually allow children to attend primary school would be an obvious step in that direction--that is, unless you were the ADB.  So much for the ADB's mission of "fighting poverty."