Manila, Philippines - The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) private sector operations over the past year reached $2.3 billion, growing the bank’s overall portfolio of private sector operations by 17% to $10.9 billion, according to ADB Private Sector Operations Department’s (PSOD) Development Effectiveness Report 2017. The 27 new private sector operations committed in 2017 accounted for 13.4% of overall signed regular ordinary capital resources financing. Last year’s commitments were complemented by $5.9 billion in cofinancing, representing 50% of all cofinancing mobilised by ADB. The report was released in Manila, Philippines at the 51st Annual Meeting of ADB’s Board of Governors.
“ADB is firmly committed to partnering with the private sector to help improve infrastructure, expand access to finance, and achieve the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals,” said ADB Vice-President for Private Sector and Cofinancing Operations, Diwakar Gupta.
“PSOD will continue to ambitiously work to expand its private sector operations from 13.4% to 20% of total commitments by 2020, including by working in new frontier markets and sectors and increasing support for high-level technologies to improve development impact.”
ADB private sector transactions committed in 2017 are expected to create 17,000 new jobs in Asia and the Pacific. Private sector commitments last year are also projected to improve infrastructure access and services, helping treat 750 million cubic meters of wastewater every year and generating around 7,755 gigawatt hours of electricity — enough to power 870,000 households.