Ordinary Capital Resources

Ordinary capital resources-borrowing countries are home to about 64% of the world’s poorest people—those living on less than $1.25 a day—and account for the bulk of ADB lending operations

Since 1968, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), through its ordinary capital resources (OCR), has supported projects that have enabled a dynamic set of countries to build the right infrastructure and create the proper environment for development.

Over the years, ADB, through OCR, has modernized urban and rural transportation systems, brought electricity to poor households, provided poor people access to clean water and sanitation facilities, installed transmission and distribution lines, helped mitigate environmental degradation, and improved the quality of national and local public administration that impacts citizens every day.

Today, OCR-borrowing countries—including three of the world’s four largest and most populous states—are steering their development process in a globalized economy. Their industrialization and urbanization have been large scale and rapid.

Since the first OCR loan to Thailand for $5 million in 1968, ADB’s OCR annual sovereign lending operations have grown to $6.9 billion in 2008. From approval levels averaging about $4.0 billion annually from 2001 to 2005, OCR sovereign lending approvals increased significantly beginning in 2006—in support of critical policy and reform measures, and because of a strong demand for the newly introduced operational instrument, the multitranche financing facility.

Nonsovereign private approvals also continued to increase, reaching $1.78 billion in 2008—and are further expected to reach $2.2 billion by 2010, resulting from a greater geographical diversification of the private sector loan portfolio, and from a significant increase in cofinancing.

Between 1990 and 2005, the number of people living in extreme income poverty based on $1.25 a day was reduced from 1,389 million to 877 million because of rapid progress in Southeast Asia and the People’s Republic of China. Still, OCRborrowing countries are home to about 64% of the world’s poorest people—those living on the new international poverty line of less than $1.25 a day— and account for the bulk of ADB lending operations. OCR countries are facing a set of unprecedented global and development challenges—heightened demands on energy, competition over natural resources and raw materials, and environmental degradation—making collective regional and global efforts imperative.

Despite the poverty and social challenges, OCR countries have a large growth potential, and have great physical, financial, and human resources potential for social and anti-poverty programs.

In this publication, we tell stories of how OCR projects have bridged gaps, connected lives, and made successful investments for the future.