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Asian Development Bank is a multilateral development financial institution with a mission to help its developing member countries.
India
India is a founding member of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and is its fourth largest shareholder. ADB lending has traditionally focused on infrastructure. ADB has approved 100 loans amounting to $16,448.21 million since 1986. This excludes approved multitranche financing facilities (MFF) in 2005 and 2006.
Since 1988, it has approved 220 technical assistance projects amounting to $144.41 million, of which 46 (amounting to $60.125 million) are under implementation. This does not include three ongoing grant projects under the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction for $10.3 million.
The core focus of ADB’s operational strategy in India is poverty reduction through infrastructure-led growth. More than 75% of ADB’s India program has traditionally focused on infrastructure.
In line with the Government’s focus on agriculture, rural development, and sustainable water use, ADB has initiated operations in these areas since 2004–2005. The first such loan, the Chhattisgarh Irrigation project for $46.1 million, was approved in 2004. In December 2006, it approved the $1 billion Rural Cooperative Credit Restructuring and Development Program loan for revamping India’s cooperative credit system.
Pakistan
Pakistan has received about $16.57 billion in loans since joining the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 1966. ADB had disbursed about $11.3 billion as of the end of 2006. Assistance approved in 2006 included almost $1.54 billion in loans and $7.6 million for technical assistance grants.
Under ADB’s country strategy and program (CSP) approved in May 2002 assistance supports good governance, sustainable pro-poor growth, and inclusive social development. Subregional cooperation, sustainable environmental management, and gender and development are crosscutting themes.
To mainstream governance in all Pakistan operations, the CSP update focuses on ensuring effective implementation of the Access to Justice Program and the Decentralization Support Program, as well as provincial RMPs. Support is also being provided for second-generation reforms concerned with access to justice, province-level governance reforms, and for ensuring that all ADB operations are aligned with the devolution process.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh joined the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 1973 and became one of the largest borrowers of concessionary Asian Development Fund resources. In line with the 1999 country operational strategy, ADB expanded its support into new areas in urban and rural infrastructure, and education to encompass decentralization and good governance.
Under the current Country Strategy and Program (CSP) covering the period 2006–2010, ADB is playing a major role in the energy, transport, education, urban health, and urban water supply and sanitation sectors. In other areas, such as agriculture (i.e., agribusiness), water resources management, the financial sector and small- and medium-sized enterprise development, ADB is supporting initiatives led by other development partners. Disaster mitigation, regional cooperation, gender, and environment continue to be addressed as key crosscutting issues.
In recent years, ADB has played a significant role in fostering a constructive dialogue to spearhead reforms in the energy, transport, and education sectors. ADB policy dialogue on governance has focused on reducing corruption and on improving financial management, procurement, and institutional capacity.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has received $3.76 billion for 135 public and private sector loans and $93.90 million for 223 technical assistance projects since joining the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 1966.
ADB assistance to Sri Lanka has gradually moved from mainly agricultural support to assisting the power sector, building roads and improving education. ADB’s assistance to the plantation sector, for example, has helped the Government privatize all large (except three remaining) tea plantations in the country. Work in the education sector has involved expanding access to higher education (as only 2% of Sri Lanka’s age cohort have access to university), improving skills (youth unemployment is high at 30%), and modernizing the curriculum. In cooperation with other development partners, mainly Japan but also Germany and others, ADB has invested considerable resources, including in advice, in the power sector. Sri Lanka’s electrification rate now stands at 77% of the entire population.
Following the signing of the ceasefire agreement, and because of increasing per capita income of Sri Lanka, the 2003 Country Strategy and Program planned an expansion of post-conflict assistance to the north and east of the country, and an expansion of OCR loans to support the economic reform agenda of the then Government. However, since the escalation of violence in 2006, reconstruction work has become more difficult and, in some areas, has been put on hold.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan has received $892.28 million in lending since joining the Asian Development Bank (ADB) at its founding in 1966 and is ADB’s 17th largest borrower. ADB suspended its operations in Afghanistan from 1992 to 2002.
Significant international engagement with Afghanistan resumed in 2001 following the ouster of the Taliban regime. In 2001 and 2002, ADB, the World Bank, and the United Nations assessed the country’s critical rehabilitation and development needs: at the 2002 Tokyo Conference, ADB pledged loan and grant assistance of some $500 million over 2.5 years, beginning with a $167.18 million Post-conflict Multisector Program loan, the first loan by an international financial institution to the country in more than 23 years. ADB’s support has focused on building national capacity, establishing policy and institutional frameworks, and rehabilitating infrastructure. At the request of the Afghan authorities, ADB loan and grant-financed projects and programs and related technical assistance are focused on the road transport, energy, agriculture and natural resource management, and governance and financial sectors. Private sector support has focused on loans and investments in the telecommunications and banking sectors.
Nepal
The Asian Develo-pment Bank’s (ADB) assistance to Nepal began in 1968. ADB’s current assistance portfolio consists of 23 ongoing loans (19 projects and 4 program loans) and four grants with an overall net loan amount of about $686.8 million. Of the 23 ongoing loans and four grants, 19% are in agriculture and rural development; 27% in water supply and sanitation; 14% in education and 16% in transport; and the remaining 23% in energy, finance, and governance.
ADB’s Country Strategy and Program (CSP) for Nepal, approved in October 2004, cover the period 2005–2009. The strategy—based on in-depth analysis of Nepal’s development challenges and opportunities and the Government’s strategic priorities set out in the Tenth Plan—focuses on promoting broad-based economic growth, inclusive social development, and good governance.
As part of the implementation of the results-based CSP, ADB focused on mainstreaming managing for development results in its operations in Nepal. ADB is currently supporting the strengthening of government’s capacity to reorient its development approach and agenda toward effective monitoring and achievement of development results through two ongoing technical assistance projects—Operationalization of Managing for Develop-ment Results and Mainstreaming Managing for Development Results in Support of Poverty Reduction in South Asia.
Maldives
The Maldives has received public sector lending of $91.48 million for 15 loans and $19.53 million for 56 technical assistance activities since joining the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 1978.
The Country Strategy and Program (CSP) (2002–2004) and its subsequent updates for the Maldives were consistent with the strategic thrust and priorities of the Government’s Sixth National Development Plan and anchored in the three-pillar framework of ADB’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. To foster pro-poor growth, the 2002 CSP and its updates supported fostering regional development through the provision of basic infrastructure (water, power, and sanitation).
To promote social development, the CSP focused on providing assistance for postsecondary education and vocational skills development. And to enhance good governance, the CSP aimed to develop improved information access and public sector connectivity, as well as building the capacity of key public institutions. ADB’s current portfolio comprises seven active loans with a total value of $47.41 million. The loans include Postsecondary Education Development, Regional Development Project (Phase I), Information Technology Development, Outer Islands Electrification, Employment Skills Training, Tsunami Emergency Assistance Project, and the Regional Development Project (Phase II): Environmental Infrastructure and Management.
Bhutan
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) began lending to Bhutan in 1983. In recent years, assistance has focused on the development of infrastructure, including national roads, rural electrification, and urban development. ADB has also provided grant technical assistance designed primarily for institutional development and strengthening.
Grant assistance was used to develop capacity for debt management and forecasting, strengthen the Royal Monetary Authority and the National Statistics Bureau, promote the institutional development of the Planning Commission, and support the 2003 Bhutan Living Standards Survey, which the Government used for its 2004 Poverty Assessment Sectoral Report. In 2006, grant assistance was used to accelerate rural electrification; prepare the SME/microenterprise development program; strengthen the capacity of the Department of Aid and Debt Managements’ Debt Management Unit; institutionalizing skills and capacity development in the financial sector; capacity building in urban infrastructure planning and management; and including a grant technical assistance for the Rural Electrificians Training Program. 
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