Fifty-nine years ago today, on November 24, 1966 (October 13, 1966 in the lunar calendar), the Asian Development Bank was established. The Asian Development Bank (referred to as ADB or ADB for short) is a financial institution jointly established by countries in the Asia-Pacific region and western developed countries. It was established on November 24th, 1966 and started business in December. Headquartered in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Although it was established according to the resolutions of the United Nations and the Economic Commission for the Far East (now known as the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific), it is not a subordinate agency of the United Nations. The purpose of ADB is to promote and strengthen the economy and cooperation of developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region through loans and technical assistance. The source of funds mainly depends on the subscription or donation of member countries (regions), borrowing from the world financial market and issuing bonds. The loan targets are member countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Loans focus on agriculture, energy or industrial projects that serve agriculture. There are two forms of loans: one is ordinary loan and the other is preferential loan. Ordinary loans are mainly provided to countries and regions with better economic conditions; Preferential loans are mainly provided to poor developing countries and regions. The repayment period and grace period of preferential loans are long, and the interest rate is low. The Asian Development Fund set up by the bank is a special fund for preferential loans. The highest decision-making body of ADB is the Council, which is composed of one director and one deputy director appointed by each member country and region. It meets once a year to decide to accept new members, change the share capital, elect directors and president, and amend the articles of association. The executive body is the board of directors, which consists of 12 directors elected by the board of directors. The President is the chairman of the board of directors. According to the regulations of the ADB, member and associate members of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, as well as other countries in the region and developed countries outside the region that are member countries of the United Nations and its subsidiary bodies, can apply to join the Asian Development Bank. Anyone who applies to join must determine the amount of subscription capital according to the gross national product of the country (region), and obtain a 2/3 majority vote of the Council before joining. In 1992, ADB had 52 member countries (regions), including 37 local members and 15 non-regional members, mainly developed countries in Europe and America such as the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. China officially joined the ADB on March 10, 1986, becoming the 47th member of the ADB. After China joined the ADB, Taiwan Province had to change the name of "Republic of China" to "Chinese Taipei" before it could continue to stay in the bank as a member. Each member country (region) has different voting rights according to the number of subscribed share capital. The more subscribed share capital, the greater the voting rights. Japan and the United States have the largest subscribed share capital, both accounting for more than 14.9%, and have the largest voting rights. China's subscribed share capital is 114,000 shares, equivalent to approximately US $1.3 billion, ranking third. The Chinese government has designated the People's Bank of China as China's official contact institution with ADB and ADB's custodian bank in China. On April 28th, 1987, at the 20th Annual Meeting of the ADB Board of Governors held in Osaka, China was elected as a director of ADB. From May 4 to 6, 1989, the 22nd annual meeting of the ADB Board of Governors was held in Beijing, and the Chinese director was unanimously elected as the chairman of the ADB Board of Governors.