Asian Development Bank Overview
Established in 1966 and headquartered in Manila, Philippines, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a multi-lateral development finance institution for Asia and the Pacific. Its foremost objective is to address poverty in the region and assist countries in their efforts to improve the quality of life for their citizens. ADB
envisions a poverty-free Asia and Pacific region and works toward this end by providing a range of financial tools to its Developing Member Countries (DMCs) such as policy dialogue, loans,
technical assistance (TA), grants, guarantees, and equity
investments. From 31 members at its establishment, ADB now has 67 members, of which 48 are from within Asia and the Pacific and 19 outside. The ADB was modeled closely on the World Bank, and has a similar weighted voting system where votes are
distributed in proportion with members' capital subscriptions. ADB releases an annual report that summarizes its operations, budget and other materials for review by the public. At the end of
2014, Japan holds the largest proportion of shares at 15.7%. The United States holds 15.6%, China holds 6.5%, India holds 6.4%, and Australia holds 5.8%.
Organization
ADB has 67 shareholding members including 48 from the Asia and Pacific region. View a complete list of our members. ADB's highest policy-making body is the Board of Governors, which comprises one representative from each member nation – 48 from the Asia-Pacific and 19 from outside the region. T he Governors elect 12 members to form the Board of Directors, which performs its duties full time at the ADB headquarters. The Directors supervise ADB's financial statements, approve its administrative budget, and
technical assistance operations. The ADB President chairs the Board of Directors and heads a management team comprising six Vice-Presidents and the Managing Director General, who
supervise the work of ADB's operational, administrative, and knowledge departments.
Objectives
The ADB defines itself as a social development organization that is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. This is carried out through investments – in the form of loans, grants and information sharing – in
infrastructure, health care services, financial and public
administration systems, helping nations prepare for the impact of climate change or better manage their natural resources, as well as other areas. As a multilateral development finance
institution, ADB provides loans, technical assistance and grants. ADB maximizes the development impact of its assistance by:
facilitating policy dialogues, providing advisory services, and
mobilizing financial resources through cofinancing operations that tap official, commercial, and export credit sources
Focus areas
Eighty percent of ADB’s lending is concentrated public sector lending in five operational areas.
Education
Environment, Climate Change, and Disaster Risk
Management - Finance Sector Development
Infrastructure, including transportand
Regional Cooperation and Integration Private Sector
Funding
ADB raises funds through bond issues on the world's capital markets. We also rely on our members' contributions, retained earnings from our lending operations, and the repayment of
loans. We also provide loans and grants from a number of special funds. n 2014, ADB’s operations totaled $22.93 billion, of which $13.69 billion was financed by ADB (Ordinary Capital Resources and Special Funds) and $9.24 billion by cofinancing partners. Sovereign operations, including official and technical assistance cofinancing, totaled $15.99 billion. Nonsovereign operations, including cofinancing, totaled $6.94 billion. More than 50 financing partnership facilities, trust funds, and other funds – totalling several billion each year – are administered by ADB and put toward projects that promote social and economic
development in Asia and the Pacific.
ADB and Bangladesh
Economic growth in Bangladesh has been largely inclusive and broad-based. The country has halved the national poverty rate to 31.5% in 2010 from 59% in 1991, and the urban poverty rate to 22% from 45% in the same period.Bangladesh is on track to achieve most of the Millennium Development Goals, including improved child health, gender equality in primary and secondary education, and wider access to finance.
In the past 4 decades, ADB support to Bangladesh focused on sectors critical to attaining and sustaining socioeconomic
$14.1 billion and 389 technical assistance projects to support project design and capacity enhancement totaling $221.7 million.
Projects supported the development of physical and social infrastructure, such as:
the Urban Governance and Infrastructure Improvement Sector Project, which benefited about 1.85 million people across 30 towns, representing 6% of the total urban
population;
the Urban Primary Health Care Project, a public-private partnership which benefited more than 6 million people through 180 urban health care centers;
the Bangabandhu Multipurpose Bridge and railway link,
which helped lift more than one million people out of poverty by improving access to economic opportunities and social services;
the Second Primary Education Development Program, PEDP II, which recruited or trained more than 140,000 teachers, built 40,000 classrooms, and helped increase student attendance from 75% to 90%; the multi-donor-supported Power System Expansion and Efficiency Improvement
Investment Program, approved in 2012, which will connect 450,000 households to the power grid and reduce carbon emissions by almost 2.5 million tons per year; and
the Emergency Flood Damage Rehabilitation Project, which helped restore infrastructure and the livelihoods of people, particularly the vulnerable poor.
ADB began its private sector operations in Bangladesh in 1989. At the end of 2012, cumulative approvals in 12 projects amounted to $297.2 million. ADB’s largest private sector initiative for
scheme) of $20 million, and a partial credit guarantee of $70 million.
Under its 2011-2015 country partnership strategy, the
overarching objective of ADB support is to contribute to the government’s Sixth Five-Year Plan priorities of enhancing growth and cutting poverty. ADB will provide assistance within its
Strategy 2020’s development agenda of inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional
