The volume of the annual operation of the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) crossed $30 billion mark in the last year.

t is for the first time in ADBs’ 50-year history when the bank’s annual financing reached at such a high level.  

Regional demand for development finance and knowledge, particularly on infrastructure, pushed the lending, according to the development bank’s Annual Report 2016 that released today.

It showed that ADB’s total lending in 2016, which includes co-financing, reached $31.70 billion, an 18 per cent increase from 2015.

The total amount includes $17.47 billion in approvals for loans and grants, $169 million for technical assistance and $14.06 billion for co-financing, which increased by a record 31 per cent over 2015. 

Disbursements, a key indicator for successful project implementation, also reached a new high of $12.26 billion in 2016.

Private sector operations reached $2.5 billion for the second time in ADB’s history which reflects ADB’s long-term strategy to significantly boost support for private enterprise to create more high quality jobs and increase living standards across Asia and the Pacific. 

ADB’s private sector operations also generated a record $5.84 billion in co-financing. 

All these figures update the provisional operations numbers released by ADB in January.