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ADB increases its financial fire power
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Asian Development Bank (ADB) president Takehiko Nakao gestures to an aide at the financial institution's headquarters following a forum with foreign correspondents based in the Philippines in suburban Mandaluyong City, east of Manila, on Jan. 8.
(Associated Press)
W
ith unanimous support from donors and shareholders, the Asia Development Bank (ADB) has substantially strengthened its financing capacity, enabling it to expand its annual loan and grant approvals by 50 percent, starting next year.
The bank leverages its lending portfolio by merging its Asian Development Fund (ADF) lending operations and Ordinary Capital Resources (OCR).
As a result, the Manila-based multilateral development bank will be able to expand its annual loan and grant approvals by over 50 percent, from US$13 billion in 2014 to more than $20 billion by 2020, ADB president Takehiko Nakao said in the opening address at the 49th annual meeting of ADB’s board of governors on Tuesday evening.
“As we are scaling up operations, we must continue to make utmost efforts to be efficient and effective. We will continue to optimize the use of our budget and staff resources. Also, we have started discussions on a new corporate strategy to better respond to evolving development challenges in the region,” said Nakao.
ADB’s loans and grants amounted to $16.3 billion in 2015, 21 percent higher than in 2014.
In response to the new expansion plan, Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said Indonesia would increase its use of ADB loans to finance infrastructure.
“We’ll maximize the use of ADB loans under the new scheme. President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo has instructed us to use all available lending facilities to finance infrastructure development,” Bambang told The Jakarta Post.
Indonesia is ADB’s third-biggest loan recipient after India and Pakistan. Indonesia had $2.92 billion in outstanding debts to ADB as of last year.
