ADB Financing Rises to $31.5b in 2016

Asian Development Bank operations for Asia and the Pacific reached all-time high of $31.5 billion in 2016, a 17% increase from $26.9 billion in the previous year.

Approvals of ADB loans, grants, technical assistance, and co-financing have been growing steadily over the years as development needs in the region continue to rise, the Manila-based bank said in a statement, PTI reported.

“The increase in our development financing to Asia and the Pacific is reflective of our strong commitment to reducing poverty and improving people’s lives in the region,” ADB President Takehiko Nakao said.

Approvals of loans and grants for sovereign (government) and non-sovereign (primarily the private sector) operations by ADB itself reached a record $17.5 billion, an increase of 9% from $16 billion in 2015.

Non-concessional loans from ADB’s Ordinary Capital Resources amounted to $14.4 billion.

ADB’s operational highlights last year include the first privately-financed solar project in Cambodia, results-based lending for an elderly care project in China, the development of India’s first coastal industrial corridor, and the $500 million counter-cyclical support to Azerbaijan.

Technical assistance, meanwhile, increased around 20% to $170 million from $141 million in 2015.

ADB last year merged its two financial instruments–the ADF and OCR. ADB said with this reform, its annual approval of loans and grants would increase to $20 billion by 2020.

The successful replenishment of the ADF in May last year for the period 2017 to 2020 would also allow ADB to substantially increase support to the region’s poorest countries for disaster risk management and regional health initiatives.

The ADF was established to provide soft loans to ADB’s developing member countries that have low incomes and limited or low creditworthiness.

Co-financing with other multilateral development institutions, meanwhile, expanded 29% last year to reach $13.9 billion from $10.7 billion in 2015.

ADB last year strengthened co-financing partnerships with China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency for a guarantee agreement, and Japan International Cooperation Agency for infrastructure financing.