MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Government of Luxembourg is committing a further $1.56 million equivalent to the Financial Sector Development Partnership Fund, Asian Development Bank (ADB) said.

The latest contribution - its fourth - raises Luxembourg’s total assistance to the ADB-administered fund to $3.85 million equivalent. The fresh assistance will be used to support new advisory and capacity building technical assistance work in the sector. It will also help ADB’s plans to expand the fund into a multi-donor facility.

“The past and present generous support from Luxembourg will help continue our current technical assistance work plans and pave the way to an expanded fund supported by the ADB donor community,” said Tadashi Kondo, Head of ADB’s Office of Cofinancing Operations.

Strengthening the policy and regulatory environments, as well as the management and institutional capacity of agencies in the financial sector in developing member countries is one of the five key pillars of Strategy 2020 - ADB’s long term development blueprint.

The fund was established in 2006 with an initial contribution of $1.5 million from Luxembourg, and is aimed at strengthening regional and national financial systems in Asia and the Pacific. It supports technical assistance operations, components of investment projects, and stand-alone grant-financed activities in the financial sector.