The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will come up with more climate resilient rural infrastructure and energy efficiency projects for environmental sustainability in the coming years while supporting Bangladesh’s infrastructure needs, said ADB Country Director to Bangladesh Kazuhiko Higuchi. “ADB will continue to support education and healthcare projects.  There’ll be more climate resilient rural infrastructure and energy efficiency projects for environmental sustainability, while supporting Bangladesh’s infrastructure needs,” said the ADB country director in an interview with UNB.
He said ADB operations were realigned following the Mid Term Review (MTR) of ADB’s Strategy 2020. “Most MTR priorities have already been operationalised in Bangladesh,” the ADB Country Director said. ADB’s Board of Directors approved the MTR report recently.
“As per the MTR, ADB would seek to expand education operations to 6 per cent to 10 per cent and health operations to 3 per cent to 5 per cent of its annual approvals of financial assistance, from 3 per cent for education and 2 per cent for health during 2008-2012.”
Higuchi mentioned that proposed investments in regional rail and road connectivity, and reforms in trade facilitation, under the South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation initiative would further deepen regional cooperation.
“ADB is actively exploring public-private partnership (PPP) projects through its transactions advisory services,” he added.
Asked about the ADB’s focus on Bangladesh in the next few years, the country director said ADB would enhance its operations for better delivery of positive development results. “ADB in Bangladesh will strive to achieve these through improving implementation performance; simplification of business processes, including procurement; strengthening private sector operations; and the implementation of PPP transactions advisory services,” he said.
The ADB Board of Directors approved the Mid-Term Review of the Strategy 2020 on April 23 this year.
Revealing the outcome of the mid-term review of the Strategy 2020, Higuchi informed the MTR found that ADB had closely aligned its operations with Strategy 2020’s three strategic agendas: inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration.
During 2008-2012, he said that more than 80 per cent of ADB operations were in Strategy 2020’s five core areas-infrastructure, environment, regional cooperation and integration (RCI), finance sector development, and education. Infrastructure operations were the main channels of contribution to the three strategic agendas.
The success rates of completed ADB projects have improved in recent years, moving towards the corporate target of 80 per cent. The MTR suggests further strengthening of ADB’s institutional effectiveness, including staff skills and business processes.
Replying to another question, he said the review suggested 10 priorities for further enhancing and focusing ADB operations in its member countries, including Bangladesh. These are: Poverty reduction and inclusive economic growth; Environment and climate change; Regional cooperation and integration; Infrastructure development; More emphasis on middle-income countries; Private sector development and operations; Knowledge solutions; Financial resources and partnerships; Delivering value for money and Organising to meet new challenges.
The country director of the Manila-based lending agency said that ADB would focus on reducing vulnerabilities to economic and natural shocks by strengthening its support to sectors such as health, education, and disaster risk management that promote inclusive growth, reduce vulnerabilities, and empower more people. “ADB will move beyond its role as a project financier to bring a ‘finance++ approach’ to development projects by mobilizing greater resources and more innovative knowledge solutions at the same time ensuring ADB remains efficient and delivers value for money, he said.
Talking about the results of Strategy 2020 so far, Higuchi said that Strategy 2020 has improved ADB’s capability and positioning to respond to the Asia and Pacific region’s development challenges.
ADB’s development investments rose to more than $65 billion during 2008-2012 (the first 5 years of Strategy 2020), up by 75 per cent from the 5-year period (2003-2007) preceding the strategy’s adoption.
Combined with ADB’s support for knowledge and leveraging of additional resources, he said this assistance has supported faster growth in DMCs, helped fill their infrastructure gaps, and contributed to their progress on poverty reduction and the Millennium Development Goals. The country director said that ADB’s sharper focus on development effectiveness and results under Strategy 2020 has earned it a rating of “strong” for corporate strategy and mandate in the 2013 report of the Multilateral Organisation Performance Assessment Network (MOPAN).
Assessments by several other organisations and bilateral agencies have also rated ADB as one of the best performing development institutions in terms of providing value for money.
The Japanese-born country director of the multilateral lending agency informed that ADB’s financing for clean and renewable energy was 11 times higher during 2008-2012 than in 2003-2007, while financing for energy efficiency and conservation operations rose six times.
The share of financing for environment-friendly urban transport in total transport funding increased to 10 per cent during 2008-2012, up from 2 per cent during 2003-2007.
He said that ADB financing for water, sanitation, and waste management interventions rose 
by about 70 per cent during 2008-2012, compared to 2003-2007 levels.
In 2012, ADB financing for climate change totalled $3.3 billion, including $2.4 billion for mitigation and $896 million for adaptation. Private sector development-themed operations grew from an average of 29 per cent during 2003-2007 to an average of 38 per cent during 2008-2013.
Bangladesh has been a member of ADB since 1973. Since then, ADB has so far provided Bangladesh with around $15.4 billion in loans and grants, including $872 million in 2013 alone. 
ADB’s priority areas for support in Bangladesh include energy, transport, urban infrastructure and water supply and sanitation, education, agriculture and natural resources, and finance sectors. As of 31 December 2013, ADB’s current assistance for Bangladesh included 58 loans (48 projects) with $5.19 billion in total value.