DUSHANBE, January 8, 2016 – The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) operations—comprising approvals of loans and grants, technical assistance, and cofinancing—reached an all-time high of $27.15 billion in 2015, an increase of about 19% over the $22.89 billion in 2014, according to provisional figures released by the ADB on January 8.
ADB’s approvals of loans and grants, sovereign (governments) and nonsovereign (primarily private sector), reached a record $16.58 billion—a 23% increase from 2014. Technical assistance reportedly amounted to $144 million and cofinancing increased by 13% to a record $10.43 billion in 2015.
Out of the $16.58 billion, sovereign loan and grant approvals increased by 21% to $13.95 billion in 2015. Nonsovereign approvals made a big leap from $1.92 billion in 2014 to $2.63 billion in 2015. In addition to a volume increase, ADB increased its allocation to the poorest countries to 40% of nonsovereign approvals. To expedite small nonsovereign transactions, ADB introduced a fast-track approval process. ADB is now making active use of local currency lending to the private sector and increased bond issuances in local currencies to support the lending.
Unless loans and grants are disbursed, they will have no impact on development. In 2015, total disbursements of loans and grants reached a record $12.34 billion, an increase of 21% over the previous year.
To help meet the increased demand for its operations, ADB Board of Governors last year unanimously endorsed the merger of ADB’s concessional Asian Development Fund and its market-based ordinary capital resource balance sheet. With this path-breaking reform, ADB’s financing capacity (annual approvals of loans and grants) will dramatically increase up to $20 billion by 2020.
Among ADB’s operational highlights last year were the quick response to natural disasters and support for necessary fiscal measures of countries suffering from lower commodity prices and volatility in financial markets.
In 2015, ADB was among the first multilateral development banks to commit a sizable climate finance target.
In order to help effectively mobilize financial resources and management skills from the private sector for infrastructure development, ADB established an Office of Public-Private Partnership (PPP). This office offered active transaction advisory services for PPP projects in the region.
ADB made further progress in streamlining procedures for country programming, project processing, and procurement.
Last year, ADB operationalized seven sector groups such as energy and transport, and eight thematic groups such as governance and gender, which work across operations departments. This will strengthen ADB’s knowledge services and provide innovative solutions to client countries.
