ADB urges Asia Pacific countries to spend at least $1.5 trillion yearly on infrastructure

Research reveals that most developing countries do not invest enough of their GDP on infrastructure developments

Asian Development Bank (ADB) published a book titled ‘Infrastructure Financing in Asia,’ where they advise developing nations in the Asia Pacific (APAC) to collectively gather USD1.5 trillion every year until 2030 to finance the infrastructure developments that are extremely necessary for the entire region, reported Khmer Times.

Bambang Susantono, vice president for knowledge management and sustainable development at ADB, emphasised the importance of the fund to sustain the growth throughout APAC amidst global financial uncertainty.

Since only a few of the developing countries managed to reach the suggested five percent of gross domestic product investment in infrastructure, around USD22.6 trillion will have to be collected until 2030 to finance projects across the ASEAN+3 nations, including Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

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“Developing Asia must strive to find new, innovative, outside-the-box financing solutions to meet its huge infrastructure investment needs. I am confident that this rich collective volume prepared by experts from inside and outside ADB will set forth some concrete and specific directions for infrastructure financing, as well as provide food for thought,” Susantono explained during a book launch in Manila.

Experts are encouraging nations to come up with different ways to finance projects, like Cambodia’s Public-Private Partnerships financing, where private sectors are allowed to help develop the Kingdom’s infrastructure.

The head of the Central Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) Unit at the Ministry of Economy and Finance Sam Vongsy is hoping for more PPPs to take off in the country to eventually trigger growth in infrastructure beyond the government’s limited budget.