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After the media briefing for the 2012 MyView Asia-Pacific Video Contest, from left: Principal Director Ann Quon, principal director of ADB's external relations, MyView winner Adrian Sibal from the Philippines; and ADB Senior Advisor and Practice Leader (Energy), Pil-Bae Song. Adrian Sibal, a 26-tear-old Filipino filmmaker was awarded the grand prize in a recent video contest sponsored by the Asian Development Bank for this year. In an ADB press statement: " Mr. Sibal’s video entry, ‘The Rivals’, beat out more than 150 other entries in the contest, which focused on the theme ‘Energy for All/Renewable energy.’  “Over 700 million people in the Asia-Pacific region still lack access to electricity, and Mr. Sibal eloquently addressed this issue in his winning film,” said ADB’s Principal Director, Department of External Relations, Ann Quon. “The interest in MyView is growing each year, with entries from aspiring filmmakers across the globe. MyView provides a showcase for filmma...

Corruption, which always takes place in poorer countries, has hurt economic performance by reducing private investments, by adversely affecting the quantity and quality of public infrastructure, by reducing tax revenue, by resulting in a shallower and less efficient financial system, and by reducing human capital formation, says a 2011 report by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force. In its report titled "Laundering the Proceeds of Corruption," the task force claimed that corruption can also have adverse distributional effects as it hurts the poor disproportionately, adding that countries with high levels of corruption achieve lower literacy rates, higher mortality rates, and overall have worsen human development outcomes. The task force estimated that between USD 1.26 trillion to USD 1.44 trillion disappeared from the national coffers of poorer countries in 2008 due to corruption. "These numbers have increased and corruption plays a significant role in the il...