Incheon, South Korea—The Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved the bank’s 2022 financial statements and a $1.1-billion net income allocation from its ordinary capital resources (OCR).
The bulk of the allocable net income will be for ADB’s ordinary reserve to support the bank’s capital growth and provide an earnings base to generate income worth $716.5 million.
This was followed by the Asian Development Fund worth $292.4 million and the Technical Assistance Special Fund (TASF) worth $90 million.
“ADB is actively evolving our mission, increasing our resources, and undertaking organizational reforms. We are especially committed to investing in global and regional public goods, to help mitigate the increasing global threats,” ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa said in his statement on Thursday.
The Manila-based multilateral development bank (MDB) extends two kinds of lending, the OCR for middle-income countries at market rates and the ADF for poor countries at concessional rates.
The TASF, meanwhile, provides technical assistance grants to borrowing members to help prepare projects and undertake technical or policy studies.
“Multilateral cooperation and concessional funding assistance given to developing member-countries will remain to be the most effective tools in ensuring a sustainable and inclusive recovery. And we commend the ADBs effort and exploring initiatives that will increase its lending capacity,” Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Felipe M. Medalla said in his statement during the business session of the ADB Board of Governor’s. Medalla is the Philippines’ head of delegation this year.
“Climate action and navigating policy issues surrounding it requires a whole of society approach. The ADB needs to find ways to seamlessly restructure financing in such a way that will be a greater enabler for greener and more resilient growth for its member countries,” he added.
On the part of the Philippines, Medalla said the strategy of the Philippine government is to focus on modernizing agriculture, expanding agribusiness, encouraging private sector participation in infrastructure development, promoting digital transformation, and enhancing the competitiveness of local industries, among others.
Medalla said the ADB and the national government presented the bank’s proposed themes for its new country partnership, foremost of which is climate action. He said this is needed by the country because the Philippines will no longer build new power plants.
“We acknowledge that the ADB has been relentless in its efforts to alleviate poverty and social inequality, tackle climate change, and has resilience and sustainability and foster growth across the Asia Pacific region. For that we thank the ADB for his continued support to the Philippines,” Medalla said.
Earlier, ADB Philippines Country Director Kelly Bird said the CPS for 2024 to 2029 may be approved by the ADB Board early next year. The CPS, which is aligned with the administration’s eight-point agenda and the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028, will be crafted using three pillars.
The first pillar is on intensified climate action; climate smart transportation and digital transformation; and investing in Filipinos.
Under climate action, ADB aims to help the country undertake policy reforms and finance, resource mobilization; capacity building for climate change related agencies and the PPP Center; and finance investments.
These investments will be focused on mitigation, adaptation and biodiversity protection as well as food security/agriculture; flood protection; irrigation; disaster management and resilience; and protecting biodiversity.
Under climate smart transportation and digital transportation, the ADB intends to help the government undertake reforms such as the use of electronic vehicles in mass transport, specifically electronic buses; institutional capacity building; and other investments such as pedestrian walkways, bridges, expressways, and road networks.
Projects and programs to invest in Filipinos include those that address the learning losses in education; developing technological and vocational skills; business and employment recovery; social protection; helping vulnerable mothers and child nutrition; and universal healthcare and health sector investments.