The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Sunday said it will provide about $6 billion loan to India over the next three years, even as the multilateral lender stated it is facing the challenge of raising resources.
“Our idea is ADB will maintain its lending level to India, approximately $2 billion over next three years. We are now working on the country partnership strategy and we are planning to maintain the level of lending to India,” ADB President Takehiko Nakao said at the concluding day of the 46th annual meeting of the funding agency.
India is the biggest borrower of ADB.
The Manila-based multilateral lender had extended $2.4 billion loan to India in 2012 across sectors like transport, energy, commerce, industry, trade and finance.
Asked about whether ADB has identified projects, Mr. Nakao said it is too premature to talk about any specific ones but ADB team is looking at various concrete projects.
He also said that the bank will continue to lend $10 billion a year across the member-nations despite generating lower return from investments.
Stating that ADB is facing a resource challenge, he said this issue will require urgent and careful attention. “We will look at all options for ensuring that our lending level remains adequate.”
Actively investing in different kinds of assets can be one of the options for larger revenue, he said, adding that “financial safety and return is the key objective while making investment”.
Asked whether there was discussion on augmenting the capital of the bank at the Board of Governors meeting, Mr. Nakao said: “That is a very difficult issue. At this point I want to mention what kind of objections we are getting to maintain the level of lending. I don’t want to specify what kind of idea we have at this moment.”
ADB’s capital was tripled in 2009. The fund enhancement came after a gap of 15 years.
