Australia

In May 2020, ADB and DFAT signed financing documents to establish the Australian Climate Finance Partnership (ACFP), a concessional financing facility designed to catalyze financing for nonsovereign (private sector) climate adaptation and mitigation projects in eligible countries in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. The ACFP is a stand-alone, ADB-managed, single-donor trust fund supported by the DFAT through grant contributions of A$140 million (around $100 million). The ACFP will seek to scale up low-carbon sectors in selected developing countries in the Indo-Pacific through the targeted use of higher risk-bearing and concessional financing for nonsovereign transactions. It will also seek to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in projects supported by the fund.

Australia has also been extremely supportive of ADB’s Trade and Supply Chain Finance Program (TSCFP), which comprises the Trade Finance Program (TFP) and the Supply Chain Finance Program, and provided $6.3 million (A$8.5 million) to fund TSCFP expansion to the Pacific and Myanmar as well as other initiatives.

From its inception, ADB’s TFP has supported 939 Australian export and import transactions (through Australian and non-Australian banks) to developing Asia valued at over $855.4 million as of December 2020. Exports and imports were to seven countries, but mostly to Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Viet Nam. Isolating TFP’s work with Australian banks, the TFP works with four banks domiciled in Australia and has provided guarantees supporting $1.8 billion in trade in over 1,541 transactions. It has mobilized $111.6 million in cofinancing with banks domiciled in Australia. This cofinancing helps leverage ADB resources and brings more support for developing members.