Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it is open to co-financing infrastructure projects with the China-led rival Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in the region.
ADB headquarters in Manila confirmed wire reports that quoted ADB President Takehiko Nakao who said “there are many ways” of forging collaboration with the AIIB in the coming years.
Nakao also said the ADB is now helping the AIIB by sharing information with them.
He said this has been the practice of ADB whenever multilateral institutions seek information.
The ADB has been cofinancing projects all over Asia for many years. Some of its partners include the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), Agence Francaise de Developpement or the French Development Agency, and the German development bank, KfW.
In the Philippines the ADB has helped cofinance the country’s Project Development and Monitoring Facility (PDMF). This is the revolving fund used to finance prefeasibility studies for public-private partnership projects.
The ADB cofinanced a portion of the PDMF with the Australian Agency for International Development and the Canadian government.
In an official statement issued in October 2014 when the AIIB was formally established, Nakao already said the ADB was willing to “collaborate” with the China-led multilateral.
Nakao also said the creation of the AIIB will contribute to providing additional resources for infrastructure investments in Asia.
In May last year, ADB East Asia Department Director General Ayumi Konishi said the infrastructure requirements of Asia were to double to around $800 billion a year in the 2011 to 2020 period from around $400 billion a year in the preceding decade.