Approvals of loans and grants from ADB’s own resources reached a record USD19.1 billion, representing a 9% increase from the USD17.5 billion seen in 2016. This puts ADB well on its way to meet its USD20 billion target by 2020. Of the total, nonsovereign (primarily private sector) operations accounted for USD3.2 billion, a 26% increase from USD2.5 billion in 2016. TA, meanwhile, increased by about 22% to USD205 million from USD169 million in the previous year.
Commitments (the amount of loans and grants signed)—ADB’s new performance measure—reached USD20.1 billion. This is a significant increase from USD13.3 billion in 2016, reflecting the signing of large projects approved in 2016 and 2017.
Source: Internet
“The strong figures for ADB operations in the past year were supported by the successful merger of ADB’s concessional Asian Development Fund lending operations with the Ordinary Capital Resources balance sheet—which took effect at the start of 2017,” ADB President Takehiko Nakao said. “This will allow us to deliver a much higher level of assistance to our developing member countries for years to come without seeking a capital increase.”
A highlight of ADB’s operational figures for 2017 is climate financing, which reached a record USD4.5 billion (comprising mitigation USD3.6 billion and adaptation USD0.9 billion), a 21% increase from 2016. This puts ADB in a good position to achieve its USD6 billion climate financing target by 2020.
Cofinancing approvals declined to USD9.5 billion in 2017 from the USD13.9 billion recorded in 2016, partly due to the delay of large expected cofinanced projects. Disbursements were USD11.7 billion in 2017, compared to USD12.7 billion in 2016. This is because of lower approvals, and hence disbursements, of policy-based lending and counter-cyclical support facility, among other factors.
“Disbursements are essential to make a difference on the ground. Cofinancing and catalyzation is a much-discussed strategy in the international community to realize the Sustainable Development Goals,” said Mr. Nakao. “ADB will come up with additional concrete measures to increase disbursements and cofinancing, building on the new procurement policy approved in April 2017 and ongoing efforts to leverage resources.”
Among ADB’s other operational highlights were projects that combine finance with innovative approaches to development, including satellite data and remote sensing to improve irrigation in Indonesia and Pakistan, pilot testing of climate-smart agriculture practices in Bangladesh, and supporting social welfare reforms in Mongolia to promote human development.
An innovative USD100 million TA loan to the Philippines, approved in October 2017, will help the government prepare and deliver infrastructure projects under its Build Build Build program.
On the funding side, ADB offered new and innovative thematic products such as the health bond and gender bond. This is on top of increased efforts to raise local currency funding to meet the growing demand for nonsovereign local currency loans. ADB’s Indonesian rupiah bond in December was the first bond issued from a multilateral development bank of which Indonesia is a shareholder./.