MANILA, May 1 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Thursday its 41st annual meeting to be held in Madrid, Spain, will be focused on global financial turmoil and soaring food and oil prices.

    The ADB said in a news release that some 3,000 leaders of government, the private sector, academe and civil society from around the world will attend the meeting to be held May 3 to 6 at the Institucion Ferial de Madrid.

    The meeting will also discuss climate change and the fight against poverty, said ADB, adding that Asia-Pacific region is still home to two-thirds of the world's poor, or 1.5 billion people living on less than 2 U.S. dollars a day.

    Among those attending are finance ministers and central bank governors mainly from ADB's 67 member countries.

    By choosing Madrid as venue for the annual meeting, ADB hopes to learn from the experience of regional integration from the European Union, said ADB.

    A series of seminars will be held over the meeting addressing topical issues in the Asia-Pacific region.

    One seminar, Scaling up Investment for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, will discuss the challenge of attracting capital at the required scale to meaningfully address climate change, which is expected to hit the Asia-Pacific region hard, said ADB.

    More than 300 journalists have registered to attend the meeting, with a fully equipped media center has been set up on site.