ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty.
Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.
ORGANIZATION
ACCOUNTABILITY
ADB supports projects in developing member countries that create economic and development impact, delivered through both public and private sector operations, advisory services, and knowledge support.
Private Sector Financing
ADB focuses on projects that help promote private investments in the region that will have significant development impact and will lead to accelerated, sustainable, and inclusive growth.
Focus Areas
In assisting private sector projects and companies in its developing member countries (DMCs), ADB builds on existing strengths in the infrastructure sector, financial sectors and capital markets, and agribusiness sector.
Agribusiness
ADB supports agribusiness projects and companies across the entire food and agriculture value chain, including farm input providers, crop and livestock producers, agri-processors, packaged food producers, storage and logistics providers, and food distributors. ADB provides assistance in the form of debt and direct equity investments.
Beyond financial returns, ADB identifies, structures, and finances agribusiness projects supporting food security, food safety, local value addition, rural development, gender inclusion, reduced pollution, climate change mitigation, and climate change adaptation.
ADB works with agribusiness sponsors with strong technical and financial capabilities to ensure a successful implementation of the investment projects.
To enhance the developmental impact of the projects, ADB mobilizes commercial and donor cofinancing. When appropriate, ADB also mobilizes technical assistance grants—for example, to provide direct assistance to smallholder farmers and cooperatives engaged in the agricultural value chain supported by the project.
Business Development
The Business Development Team (BDT) of ADB's Private Sector Operations was created in 2018, to explore, identify, and design new financing products that contribute to the long-term project pipeline of ADB. BDT launched ADB Ventures in 2020 which invests in early-stage technology companies generating climate mitigation and adaptation impact. BDT is currently designing new developmental initiatives that focus on early-stage infrastructure projects and smaller frontier-markets.
Financial Institutions
ADB supports the development of financial sectors and capital markets to facilitate the mobilization of foreign and domestic capital to productive sectors of the economy.
We fund or facilitate funding of financial institutions so they can, in turn, finance small and medium-sized enterprises, microenterprises, housing mortgages, and other underserved sectors that ADB may not be able to assist directly. Where needed, we help create and build sustainable financial institutions, usually in partnership with like-minded strategic investors.
ADB provides assistance in the form of equity, loans, and guarantees the following private sector institutions:
- Banks;
- Capital market institutions, such as stock and fixed income exchanges, central depositories, and rating agencies;
- Leasing or nonbank financial institutions;
- Insurance companies; and
- Funds including private equity funds, venture capital funds, mutual funds, distressed asset funds, infrastructure funds, and thematic funds (i.e., environment funds).
We are also keen to catalyze complex capital market solutions and other innovative approaches to financing challenges, including the emerging structured finance and securitization market.
Through its work with financial intermediaries, ADB's private sector operations focus on expanding access to finance, particularly among lower income groups (microfinance and housing finance) and micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises, as well as on infrastructure development and climate change finance.
We also support trade finance activities through ADB’s Trade Finance Program (TFP) and Supply Chain Finance Program (SCFP). The TFP fills market gaps for trade finance by providing guarantees and loans to banks to support trade while the SCFP works with corporates and partner financial institutions (PFIs) to enhance access of small and medium-sized enterprises to working capital.
Health and Education
Education is fundamental to sustainable development. The development benefits of education extend beyond economic growth and include technological advancement, better health choices, improved civic participation and many others. Similarly, good health allows full economic participation, improves productivity and reduces poverty.
In the education sector, ADB will focus on projects that support: (i) higher-quality, more accessible and equitable basic, secondary and tertiary education; (ii) technical and vocational education training for skills development in the formal and informal labor markets; and (iii) use of innovative approaches including PPPs and information and communications technology (ICT) for education service delivery. In the health sector, as DMCs increasingly focus on addressing affordability issues through the implementation of universal health insurance programs, ADB will support private sector players who are expanding access to quality healthcare services. ADB will focus on: (i) primary healthcare and basic hospital services; (ii) affordable pharmaceuticals and medical equipment; and (iii) use of PPPs to improve efficiency in the sector. ADB will also contribute indirectly towards improving health outcomes through its financing for infrastructure sectors such as water and waste treatment.
Infrastructure
In infrastructure and project finance, ADB is focused on the following core sectors of operation: energy (e.g., power, generation transmission and distribution, renewable power); transport (e.g., roads, ports, railways, airports); telecommunications; water (e.g., water supply and waste treatment); and urban infrastructure.
Sector-specific engagements are guided by ADB's strategic agenda at the country level, in turn reflecting client demand. For infrastructure projects, ADB provides assistance through equity, loans, and guarantees, as well as B loans (complementary financing scheme) and arranging parallel financing.
ADB supports subsovereign, municipal, corporate, and privatization of infrastructure projects, and provides financing needed to upgrade or expand existing infrastructure facilities. Financial restructuring of existing projects financed with debt denominated in foreign currency and/or used short-term facilities may also be considered for ADB assistance. ADB is also encouraging and financing "clean" and renewable technologies appropriate for local settings.
The Infrastructure Finance Division 1 (PSIF1) undertakes projects in Central and West Asia and South Asia while the Infrastructure Finance Division 2 (PSIF2) covers East Asia, the Pacific, and Southeast Asia.
Our Team
Joseph Bergin
Advisor, Private Sector Operation Department and Head, Equity Investments Unit concurrently OIC, Business Development Team
