In a recent speech, Masatsugu Asakawa, the President of the Asian Development Bank, said that the overall growth of developing Asian in 2020 would be negative, millions of people will be pushed back into poverty due to COVID-19. He now expects overall growth of developing Asia to be -0.7% this year. This would be the first contraction in 6 decades. Of this, China’s growth is expected to be 1.8% this year. He noted that while developing Asia is expected to rebound strongly by 6.8% next year, he cannot anticipate a V-shaped recovery, as it will take some time for countries to recover to pre-pandemic levels of GDP growth. Moreover, another alarming estimate is that an additional 80-160 million people in the region will be pushed back into poverty, reversing much of the poverty reduction that was achieved in recent years. Despite all the social and economic harships already endured by so many people across developing Asia, Asakawa said the pandemic has yet to show signs of ending any time soon. In fact, many countries are suffering from the second and the third wave of contagion. Regarding the acquisition and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines, Asakawa said that right now, ADB is working intensively to develop a new mechanism that will ensure safe, speedy and equitable access to vaccines throughout developing Asia, especially for poor and vulnerable population.