Annual Report 2008

Pacific
Cook Islands, Fiji Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu

With cumulative lending to the region amounting to $2 billion, ADB expanded regional development, including new partnerships with the Global Environment Facility, the World Bank and bilateral partners, and other Pacific regional organizations. ADB's Pacific private sector development efforts tripled. The $400 million Highlands Region Road Improvement Investment Program for Papua New Guinea became the first multitranche financing facility approved for the Pacific.

Overview

ADB helps 14 Pacific developing member countries tackle poverty by developing the private sector and physical and social infrastructure, and promoting good governance.

Under its revised Pacific strategy (2005-2009), ADB tackled the environmental, economic, and political fragilities of the region, promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth. This assistance emphasized capacity building and good governance in public sector land development processes.

Pacific lending and nonlending operations expanded to $118.3 million in loans and $37.5 million in grants (Tables 20 and 21), with cumulative lending to the region amounting to $2.0 billion (Table 24).

Thirty-one technical assistance activities worth $24.2 million were approved. ADB's operations catalyzed $125.0 million in cofinancing.

Jointly with Australia, New Zealand, and the World Bank, ADB established the Pacific Infrastructure Facility to coordinate donor assistance of up to $200 million over 4 years to lessen economic infrastructure constraints. ADB also expan ded its part nership with the Global Environment Facility to support coastal marine resource management in the Coral Triangle of the Pacific and promote renewable energy.

ADB continued to provide policy and technical advice through its knowledge products, such as its policy briefs on the impact of high oil and food prices, Living With High Prices, and on the implications of the global financial crisis in the Pacific, Navigating the Global Storm.

ADB strengthened its representation in the Pacific with a joint ADB-World Bank office in Solomon Islands, approval for similar offices in Samoa and Tonga, and increased specialist resources in its resident missions and headquarters.

Portfolio Management

Actual performance against targets for sovereign loans was 89% for contract awards ($34.2 million) and 103% for disbursements ($38.4 million) (Table 22). Papua New Guinea and Fiji Islands contributed 47% and 18% of contract awards and 52% and 25% of disbursements, respectively. As regards ADF grants, actual contract awards and disbursements were 79% ($15.7 million) and 89% ($12.3 million), respectively. The number of projects "at risk" for sovereign loans was reduced from 23% in 2007 to 4% in 2008. The active technical assistance projects averaged 84 over the past 3 years. Technical assistance savings amounted to $2.1 million. A total of 18 loans and 3 grant projects, and 27 technical assistance projects have been delegated to the resident missions, contributing to effective monitoring, strengthening partnerships with the Pacific developing member countries and development partners, and improving engagement in policy dialogue.

Download this document [ PDF: 271kb | 10 pages ]

Delegating projects to resident missions improved monitoring, strengthened partnerships with developing member countries and development agencies, and promoted policy dialogue