KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29 — The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) total commitments in monetary terms for the first half of 2022 were low compared to before the Covid-19 pandemic.
President Masatsugu Asakawa, however, said there was an improvement in terms of commitment volume over the last year.
He said as governments ease restrictions and staff return to the field, ADB expects a return to pre-pandemic levels.
“We will also focus on the quality of our operations,” he said during the governors business session board at the 55th ADB annual meeting today.
Asakawa said ADB also urged all governors to ensure that the lower income, conflict-affected and small-island developing members are not left behind.
“I urge your support for additional concessional resources under the Asian Development Fund,” he said.
He is optimistic that ADB’s current organisational reforms will enable the staff to serve developing member countries effectively in the coming years.
“At the same time, it is important for us to act on the guidance from our board’s working groups, such as the report on gender diversity on the ADB board of directors,” he said.
Last year, ADB committed US$22.8 billion (RM105 billion) in loans, grants, equity investments, guarantees and technical assistance, including Covid-related support of US$13.5 billion of which US$4.1 billion was to faciliate vaccine access.
He said these achievements demonstrated their interconnected support for both pandemic response and long-term development priorities.
They were enabled by ADB’s second-largest borrowing programme ever, which raised US$35.8 billion via the capital markets.
“We also sold a record volume of thematic bonds, and for the first time, we issued blue bonds to improve ocean health, and education bonds,” he said.
ADB also launched other energy-related financing initiatives to demonstrate its commitment to a clean energy transition. — Bernama
