Development Effectiveness Report 2013: Private Sector Operations

The private sector contributes to economic development by generating jobs and incomes, as well as through investments, new technologies, knowledge transfer, and enhanced productivity. This is particularly true in Asia and the Pacific, where much of the recent success in reducing poverty has been due to robust economic growth stimulated by the private sector. The development challenges and investment needs of the region remain large and diverse. ADB helps address these challenges and investment needs by assisting the private sector through ADB's Private Sector Operations Department (PSOD).

This fifth annual report on the development effectiveness of ADB’s private sector operations reviews how the Private Sector Operations Department has contributed to promoting ADB’s development effectiveness agenda. The report features the direct and indirect impact of private sector assistance. It considers the value added by this assistance, highlighting performance trends and identifying actions required to improve results.

Highlights

In 2013, ADB’s private sector operations continued to contribute strongly to ADB’s core operations. Of the $1.8 billion in project approvals in 2013, 96% supported infrastructure, environment, and finance sector development. These operations also contributed to ADB’s three strategic development agendas for the Asia and Pacific region—inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. Private sector operations helped create economic opportunities, including more than 13,000 jobs. PSOD requires that at least 25% of annual approvals support clean energy by 2015 and during 2010–2013 the average was already 30%. Regional integration was mainly supported through cross-border infrastructure and $4 billion in trade finance in 2013 alone.

To improve business confidence and the provision of affordable infrastructure and services, PSOD aims to have 40% of its annual approved projects in low-income countries by 2015. Since 2010, 34% of approved projects, on average, have been in these countries. In middle-income countries, the strategy continues to be to demonstrate feasible private sector models to address critical development needs and scale these up in underserved areas.

A number of first-time initiatives were undertaken during the year. These included funding to promote clean transport in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a horticulture project in India, the first agribusiness project in Kazakhstan, a guarantee for promoting lending to small rural dairy businesses in Pakistan, and investment in a private equity fund dedicated to improving health care quality and access in Asia.