ADB's Work in Palau
ADB Membership
Joined 2003
Shareholding and Voting Power
Number of shares held:
342 (0.003% of total shares)
Votes:
39,456 (0.297% of total membership, 0.456% of total regional membership)
Overall capital subscription:
$4.73 million
Paid-in capital subscription:
$0.24 million
Drawing on Palau’s exceptional natural and cultural resources, tourism underpins the country’s economy. A recent downturn in economic activity, however, illustrates that Palau remains vulnerable to external economic shocks as well as climate change and other environmental and weather-related risks.
Reforms to improve and simplify Palau’s business regulations are needed to promote private sector development, but slow progress on simplifying the country’s tax policy has limited prospects for creating the conditions necessary for more inclusive development.
Traditional Palauan pottery
Palau receives annual grant assistance under the Compact of Free Association with the United States (the Compact). In 2018, the United States Congress authorized the 2010 Compact Review Agreement, which includes the deferred payment of over $120 million in Compact grants. Due to the renewed economic assistance terms of the Compact, it is projected that Palau’s Compact Trust Fund will achieve its original objective of replacing Compact assistance beyond 2044.
Palau joined ADB in 2003 and was classified as an ADB developing member country in December 2005.
Since 2005, ADB has committed loans totaling $84.8 million, a grant of $0.2 million, and technical assistance worth $3.8 million for Palau.